LA 



/ / ' - J 

STiNDIlT 



DOCUMENTS 



ON THE SUBJECT OF A 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, 




STATE OF VIRGINIA, 



PubUslicd hy the Frcsident and Directors of the TAterary 

Fundf ill obedience to a Basolation of the General 

Jissembhj» 



RICHMOND :.'*' ;••, ^, ■ ■- - 

SBINTES BT BIXCHIE, TauEaEAmVAJfABtr-VAt. 

i8ir. 



u 



RESOLUTIOJ\f of the G-enemlJismnhhj requesting the Presi- 
dent and Directors of the Literary Fund^ to cause ceiHain 
Documents to be printed and distributed. 

[Agreed to by botli Hosses, Feb. 22d, 1817.] 

Rrsorri;!), bz/ the General Assembly of Virginia. That the President 
and Directors of the Literary Fund be and they are hereby requested to 
have printed and distributed among the citizens of this Commonwealth^ 
a Bill, "for the more general diffusion of knowledge," contained in the 
Report of the Committee of llevi.sors, appointed by the General Assem- 
bly in the year 1776 ; a letter fiom Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, Presi- 
dent of the Board of Trustees of the Albemarle Academy, on the subject 
of a system of Education ; <' the report of the President and Directors of 
the Literary Fund on the subject of Education made during the present 
session of the Legislature;" and a Bill, "providing for the establishment 
of primary Schools. Academies, Colleges, and an University," passed by 
the House of Delegates, and rejected by the Senate, and the amendments 
offered thereto in the Senate, dtu-ing the session of the present General 
Assembly ; an amendment suggested ia the Senate and tiled with their 
Clerk ; and such other Documents as the said President and Directors 
may think necessary. The expense of printing so many of the foregoing 
Documents as the President and Directors may think it necessary to have 
distributed, to be paid out of the Revenue of the Literary Fund. 

^03 



\ 



/o/<^^ 



1% 



SUNDRY 

DOCUMENTS 

ON THE SUBJECT OF A 

SYSTEM OF PUI5LIC EDUCATION, 

FOR TUB STATE OF VIHGIIJIA. 



A BILL /or Hit more general d[fuGion of Knnwledjie, proposed 
bij the Cornmittep, of Rtvisors of the Laws of Virginia, ap- 
pointed by the General Assembly in the year 1776. 

Section 1. WHEREAS it aj7pearcth, that hov/ever certdia 
forms of government are better calculated than others to pro- 
tect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and 
are at the same time themselves better guarded against degen- 
eracy, yet experience hath shev/n, that, even under the best 
forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow 
operations, perverted it into tyranny ; and it is believed that 
the most eftectual means of preventing this v/ould be to illu- 
minate, as fiu- as practicable, the minds of the people at large, 
and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts 
wiiich history exliibiteth, that, possessed thereby of the expe- 
rience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to 
know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert theii* 
natural powers to defeat its purposes; and whereas it is gen- 
erally true that that people will be happiest whose laws are 
best, and are best administered, and that laws v/iil be wisely 
formed, and honestly administered, in proportion as thojtc who 
form and administer them are wise and honest; whence it be- 
comes expedient for promoting the p-'blic happiness that those 
persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, 
fchould be rendered hy liberal education worthy to receive, and 
able to guard, the sacred deposit of the riglits and liberties of 



« SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

their fellow citizens, and that they should he called to that 
charge without rejrard to wealth, birth or other accidental con= 
dition or circumstance; but the indigence of the greater num- 
ber disabling them from so educating, at their own expense, 
those of their children whom nature hath fitly formed and dis- 
posed to become useful instruments for the public, it is better 
tliat sur.h should be sought for and educated at the common 
expense ot all, than that the happiness of ail should be con- 
fit ed to the weak or wicked : 

Sect. 2. Be it therefore enacted by the General Jissemhly^ 
That, in every county within this Commonwealth, there shall 
be chosen annually, by the electors qualified to vote for Dele- 
gates, three of the most honest and able men of their county, 
to be called theAldermen oi the county; and that the election 
of the said Aldermen shall be held at the same time and place, 
before the same persons, and notified and conducted in the 
same manner as by law is directed for the annual election of 
Delegates for the county. 

Sect S. The person before whom such election is holden 
shall certify to the court of the said county the names of the 
aldermen chosen, in order that the same may be entered of 
record, and shall give notice of their election to the said alder- 
men within a fortnight after such election. 

Sect, 4. The said aldermen, on the first Monday in October, 
if it be fair, and if not, then on the next fair day. excluding 
Sunday, siiali meet at the court-house of their county, antl 
proceed to divide tiieir said county into hundreds, bounding 
the same by water courses, mountains, or limits, to be run and 
marked, if they think necessary, by the county surveyor, and 
at the county expense ; regulating the size cf the said hundreds, 
according to the best of their discretion, so as that they may 
contain a convenient number of children to make up a school, 
and be of such convenient size tl.at all the children within 
each hundred may daily attend the school to be established 
therein; distinguishing each hundred by a particular name; 
which division, with the names of the several hundreds, shall 
be returned to the court of the county, and be entered of 
record, and shall remain unaltered until the increase or de- 
crease of inhabitants shall render an alteration necessary, i:\ 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 5 

the opinion of any succeeding aldermen, and also in the opin- 
ion of the court of the county. 

Sect. 5. The electors aforesaid residing witlun every hun- 
dred shall meet on the third Monday in October after the first 
election of aldermen, at such place, within their hundred, as 
the said aldermen sliall direct, notice thereof heing previously 
given to them by such person residing within the hundred as 
the said aldermen shall require, who is hereby enjoined to 
obej'^ such requisition, on pain of being punished by aniercc- 
xnent and imprisonment. The electors being so assembled 
sliall choose the most convenient place within their hundred 
for building a school-house. If two or more places, having a 
greater number of votes than any others, shall yet be equal 
between themselves, the aldermen, or such of them as are not 
of the same hundred, on information thereof, shall decide be- 
tween them. The said aldermen shall foithvvith proceed to 
have a school house built at the said place, and shall see that 
the same be kept in repair, and, when necessary, that it be 
rebuilt; but, whenever they shall think necessarj' that it be 
rebuilt, they shall give notice, as before directed, to the elec- 
tors of the hundred to meet at the said school-house, on such 
day as they shall appoint, to determine by vote, in the manner 
before directed, whether it shall be rebuilt at the same, er what 
other place in the hundred. 

Sect. 6. At every of these schools shall he taught reading, 
writing, and common arithmetic; and the books which shall 
be used therein for instructing the children to read shall be 
such as will at the same time make them acquainted with 
Grecian. Roman, English, and American history. At these 
schools all the free children, male and female, resident within 
iJie respective hundred, sliall be intitlcd to receive tuition gra- 
tis, for the term of three years, and as much longer, at their 
private expense, as their parents, guardians or friends, shall 
think proper. 

Sect. 7. Over every ten of these schools, (or sucli other 
number nearest thereto, as the nuu^ber of hundreds in the 
county vvdl admit, without fractional divisions,) an overseer 
shall be appointed annually by the aldermen at their first 
meeting, eminent for his learning, intei;;rity, and Sdehty to th@ 



6 SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDtJCATION". 

commonwealth, whose business and duty it shall be, from time 
to time, to appoint a teacher to each school, who shall give as- 
surance of fidelity to the commonwealth, and to remove him 
as he shall see cause ; to visit every school once in evei-y half 
year at the least; to examine the scholars; see that any gen- 
eral plan of reading and instruction recommended by the vis- 
itors of William and Mary College shall be observed; and to 
superintend the conduct of the teacher in every thing relative 
to his school. 

Sect. 8. Every teacher shall receive a salary of by 

the year, which, with the expenses of building and repairing 
the school-houses, shall be provided in such manner as other 
county expenses are by law directed to be provided; and shall 
also have his diet, lodging, and washing found him, to be levied 
in like manner, save only that such levy shall be on the inhab- 
itants of each hundred for the board of their own teacher only. 

Sect. 9. And in order that grammar schools may be ren- 
dered convenient to the youth in every part of the common- 
•wealth, Be it farther enacted, that on the first Monday in No- 
vember, after the first appointment of overseers for the hun- 
dred schools, if fair, and if not, then on the next fair day, ex- 
cluding Sunday, after the hour of one in the afternoon, the said 
overseers appointed for the schools in the counties of Princess 
Ann, Norfolk, Nansemond and Isle-of- Wight, shall meet at 
Nansemond court-house ; those for the counties of Southampton, 
Sussex, Surry and Prince George, shall meet at Sussex court- 
house; those for the counties of Brunswick, Mecklenburg and 
Lunenburg, shall meet at Lunenburg court-house; those for the 
counties of Dinv/iddie, Amelia and Chesterfield, shall meet at 
Chesterfield court-house; those for the counties of Powhatan, 
Cumberland, Goochland, Henrico and Hanover, shall meet at 
Henrico court house ; those for the counties of Prince-Edward, 
Charlotte and Halifax, shall meet at Charlotte court-house; 
those for the counties of Henry, Pittsylvania and Bedford, 
shall meet at Pittsylvania court-house; those for the counties 
of Buckingham, Aiaherst, Albemarle and Fluvanna, shall meet 
at Albemarle court house; those for the counties of Botetourt, 
Rockbridge, Montgomery, Washington and Kentucky, shall 
meet at Botetourt court-house; those for the counties of Au- 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 7 

gusta, Rockingham and Greenbrier, shall meet at Augusta 
court-house; those for the counties of Accomack and North- 
ampton, shall meet at Accomack court-house; those for the 
counties of Elizabeth Citj, Warwick, York, Gloucester, James 
City, Charles City and New-Kent, shall meet at James City 
court-house ; those for the counties of Middlesex, Essex, King 
and Queen, King William and Caroline, shall meet at King 
and Queen court-house; those for the counties of Lancaster, 
Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland, shall meet at 
Richmond court-house; those for the counties of King George, 
Staflfbrd, Spotsylvania, Prince William and Fairfax, shall meet 
at Spotsylvania court-house ; those for the counties of Loudoun 
and Fauquier, shall meet at Loudoun court-house ; those for 
the counties of Culpeper, Orange and Louisa, shall meet at 
Orange court-house; those for the counties of Shenandoah and 
Frederick, shall meet at Frederick court-house; those for tiie 
counties of Hampshire and Berkeley, shall meet at Berkeley 
court-house ; and those for the counties of Yohogania, Monon- 
galia and Ohio, shall meet at Monongalia court-house; and 
shall fix on such place in some one of the counties in their dis- 
trict as shall be most proper for situating a grammar school- 
house ; endeavouring that the situation be as central as may be 
to the inhabitants of the said counties, that it be furnished 
with good water, convenient to plentiful supplies of provision 
and fuel, and more than all things that it be healthy. And if a 
majority of the overseers present should not concur in their 
choice of any one place proposed, the method of determining 
shall be as follows: If two places only were proposed, and the 
votes be divided, they shall decide between them by fair and 
equal lot ; if more than two places were proposed, the question 
shall be put on those two which on the first division had the 
greater number of votes ; or if no two places had a greater 
number of votes than the others, as where the votes shall have 
been equal between one or both of them and some other or oth- 
ers, then it shall be decided, by fair and equal lot, (unless it can 
be agreed by a majority of votes,) which of the places having 
equal numbers shall be thrown out of the competition, so that 
the question shall be put on the remaining tv/o, and if, on tliii 
ultimate question the votes shall be equally divided, it shall 
then be decided finally by lot. 



a SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, 

Sect. 10. The said overseers having ueterminetl f!ie place 
at which the grammar school for their district shall be built, 
shall forthwith, (unless they can otherwise agree with the pro- 
prietors of the circumjacent lands as to location and price,) 
make application to the clerk of the county in which tlie said 
house is to be situated, who shall thereupon issue a writ, in the 
nature of a writ of ad quod damnum, directed to the sherift' of 
the said county, commanding him to summon and impannel 
twelve fit persons to meet at the place, so destined for the 
grammar school house, on a certain day, to be named in the 
said writ, not less than five, nor more than ten, days from the 
date thereof; and also to give notice of the same to the pro- 
prietors and tenants of the lands to be viewed, if they be to be 
found within the county, and if not, then to their agents therein. 
if any they have. ^Vhich freeholders shall be charged by the 
said shetid", impartially, and to th best of their skill and judg- 
ment, to view the lands round about the said place, and to lo- 
cate and circumscribe, by certain metes and bounds, one hun- 
dred acres thereof, having regard therein principally to the 
benefit and convenience of the said school, but respecting in 
some measure also the convenience of the said proprietors, and 
to value and appraise the same, in so many several and distinct 
parcels, as shall be owned or held by several and distinct 
owners or tenants, and according to their respective interests 
and estates therein. And, after such location and appraise- 
ment so made, the said sheriff sliall forthwith return the same, 
under the hands and seals of the said jurors, together with 
the writ, to the clerk's office of the said county ; and the right 
and property of the said proprietors and tenants in the said 
lands so circumscribed shall be immediately divested, and be 
transferred to the commonwealth, for the use of the said gram- 
mar school, in full and absolute dominion, any want of consent 
or disability to consent in the said owners or tenants notwith- 
standing. But it shall not be lawful for the said overseers so 
to situate the said grammar school-house, nor for the said jurors 
so to locate the said lands, as to include the mansion-house of 
the proprietor of the lands, nor the offices, curtilage, or garden, 
thereunto immediately belonging. 

Sect. 11. The said overseers shall forthwith proceed to have 
a house of brick or stone, for the said grammar school, with ne- 



SYSTEM ©r PUBLIC EDUCATION. 9 

ce^gary offices, built on the said lands, which grammar school- 
house shall contain a room for the school, a hall to dine in, four 
rooms for a master and usher, and ten or twelve lodging rooms 
for the scholars. 

Sect. 12. To each of the said grammar schools, shall be. 
allowed, out of the public treasury, the sum of pounds, 

out of which shall be paid by the treasurer, on warrant from 
the auditors, to the proprietors or tenants of the lands located, 
the value of their several interests as fixed by the jury, and 
the balance thereof shall be delivered to the- said overseers, 
to defray the expense of the said buildings. 

Sect. 13. In these grammar schools shall be taught the 
Latin and Greek languages, English grammar, geography, and 
the higher part of nurneiical ariihmetic, to ivit : vulgar and 
decimal fractions, and the extraction of the square and cube 
roots. 

Sect. 14. A visitor; from each county constituting tlie dis- 
trict, shall be appointed by the overseer?, for the county, in 
the month of October anPiUally, either from their own body or 
from their county at large, which visitors, or the greater part 
of them, meeting together at the said grammar school on the 
first Monday in November, if fair, and if not, then on the 
next fair day, excluding Sunday, shall have pov/er to choose 
their own rector, who shall call and preside at future meet- 
ings, to employ from time to time a master, and, if necessary, 
an usher, for the said school, to remove them at their will, 
and to settle the price of tuition to be paid by the scholars. 
They shall also visit the school twice in every year at the 
least, either together or separately at their discretion, examine 
the scholars, and see that any general plan of instruction, 
i-ecommended by the visitors of William and Mary College, 
shall be observed. The said master* and ushers, before they 
enter on the execution of their office, shall give assurance of 
fidelity to the commonwealth. 

Sect, 15. A steviard shall be employed, and removed at 
will by the master, on such wages as the visitors shall direct j 
which steward shall see to the procuring provisions, fuel, ser- 
vants for cooking, waiting, house cleaning, washing, mending, 
and gardening, on the mist reasonable terms | the expense of 
2 



JO SYSTEM OF rUBLTC EDUCATION, 

whicli, togetlier with the steward's wages, shall be divided 
equally among all tlie scholars, boarding either on the public 
or private expense. And the part of those who are on private 
expefiKe, and also the price of their tuitions due to the master 
or usher, shall be paid quarterly by the respective scholars, 
their ])arenls, or guardians, and shall be recoverable, if with- 
held, together with costs, on motion in any Court of Record, 
ten days notice tliereof being previously given to the party, 
and a jury impannelled to try the issue joined, or enquire of 
the damages. The said steward shall also, under the direc- 
tion of the visitors, see that the houses be kept in repair, and 
necessary enclosures be made and repairetl, tlie accounts for 
which, shall, from time to time, be submitted to the auditors, 
and, on their warrant, paid by the treasurer. 

Sect. 16. Everv overseer of the hundred schools shall, in 
the month of September annually, after the most diligent and 
impartial examination and enquiiy, appoint, from among the 
boys, who shall have been two years at the least at some one of 
the schools under his superintendance, and whose parents are 
too poor to give them farther education, some one of the best 
and most promising genius and disposition, to proceed to the 
grammar school of his district; which appointment shall be 
made in the court-house of the county, on the court day for 
that month, if fair, and if not, then on the next fair day, ex- 
cluding Sunday, in the presence of the aldermen, or two of 
them at the least, assembled on the bench for that purpose, 
the said overseer being previously sworn by them to make 
such appointment, without favor or affection, according to 
the best of his skill and judgment, and being interrogated by 
the said alderinen, either on their own motion, or on sugges- 
tions from the parents, guardians, friends, or teachers of the 
children, competitors for such appointment; which teachers 
shall attend for the information of the ^aldermen. On which 
interrogatories, the said ahlermen, if they be not satisfied with 
the appointment proposed, shall have a right to negative it; 
whereupon the said visitor may proceed to make a new ap- 
pointment, and the said aldermen again to interrogate and 
negative, and so toties quoties until an appointment be ap- 
proved. 



SYSTEM or riTRLIC EDUCATION. 11 

Sect. 17. Every boy so appointed shall be authoiiied to 
proceed to the grammar school of his. district, there to be 
educated and boarded during such time as is hereafter limired; 
and his quota of the expenses of the house, together with a 
compensation to the master or usher, for his tuition, at the rate 
of twenty dollars by the year, shall be paid by the treasurer 
quarterly, on warrant from the auditors. 

Sect. 18. A visitation shall be held, for the purpose of pro- 
bation, annually, at the said grammar school, on the last Mon- 
day in Septembei-, if fair, and if not, then on the next fair 
day, excluding Sunday; at which one third of the boys sent 
thither by appointment of the said overseers, and who shall 
have been there one year only, shall be discontinued as public 
foundationers, being those who, on the most diligent examina- 
tion and enquiry, sliall be thought to be of tlie least promising 
genius and dis[>osition : and of those who shall have been there 
two years, all shall be discontinued, save one only, the best in 
genius and disposition, who shall be at liberty to continue there 
four years longer on tlie public foundation, and .shall thence- 
forward lie deemed a senior. 

Sect. 19. The visitors for the districts which, or any part 
of which, be southward and westward of James river, a-i 
known by that name, or by the names of Fluvanna and Jack- 
son's river, in every other year, to wit, at the probation meet- 
ings held in the years, distinguished in the Christian compu- 
tation by odd numbers, and the visitors for all tlie other dis- 
tricts at their said meetings to be held in those years distin- 
guished hy even numbers, after diligent examination and en- 
quiry, as before directed, shall choose one, among the said se- 
niors, of the best learning and moat hopeful genius and dispo- 
sition, who shall be aiitliorised by them to proceed to William 
and Mary College, there to he educated, boarded, and clotheii, 
three years 5 the expense of wliich, annually, shall be paid by 
the treasurer, on warrant from tlie auditors. 



4S SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATIOIT. 

r3 LETTER from Thomas Jefferson to the late Peter Carr,-^ 
originally published in the Enquirer. 

MoNTioELLo, September Tth, 1814. 
Dear Sip, 

On the subject of the Academy or College pro- 
posed to be established in our neighborhood, I promised the 
trustees that I would prepare for them a plan, adapted, in the 
first instance, to our slender funds, but susceptible of being 
enlarged, either by their OM'n growth, or by accession from other 
quarters. I have long entertained the hope that this, our 
native state, would take up the subject of education, and make 
an establishment, either with or without incorporation into that 
of William and Mary, where every branch of science, deemed 
useful at this day, should be taught in its highest degree. — > 
"With this view, I have lost no occasion of making myself ac- 
quainted with the organization of the best seminaries in other 
countries, and with the opinions of the most enlightened indi- 
viduals, on the subject of the sciences worthy of a place in 
such an institution. In order to prepare what I had promised 
our trustees, I have lately revised these several plans with at- 
tention ; and I am struck with the diversity of arrangement 
observable in them, no two being alike. Yet, I have no doubt 
that these several arrangements have been the subject of mature 
reflection, by wise and learned men, who, contemplating local 
circumstances, have adapted them to the condition of the sec- 
tion of society for which they have been framed. I am strength- 
ened in this conclusion by an examination of each separate!}^, 
and a conviction that no one of them, if adopted without 
change, would be suited to the circumstances and pursuit of 
our country. The example they have set, then, is authority 
for us to select from their difJerent institutions tbe materials 
which ate good for 7ts, and, with them, to erect a structure, 
whose arrangement shall correspond with our own social con- 
dition, and shall admit of enlargement in pioportiun to the 
encouragement it may merit and receive. As I may not be 
able to attend the meetings of the trustees, I will make you 
the depository of my ideas on the subject, which may be cor- 
rected, as you proceed, by the better views of others, and 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 13 

adapted, from time to time, to the prospects which open upon 
us, and which cannot now be specifically seen and provided for. 
In the first place, we must ascertain with precision the ob- 
ject of our institution, by taking a survey of the general field 
of science, and marking out the portion we mean to occupy at 
first, and the uifimatc extension of our views beyond that, 
should we be enabled to render it, in the end, as comprehen- 
sive as we M'oukl wish. 

1. ELEMEJ^TTARF SCHOOLS. 
It is highly interesting to our country, and it is the duty of 
its functionaries, to provide that every citizen in it should re- 
ceive an education proportioned to tlie condition and pursuits 
of his life. The mass of our citizens may be divided into two 
classes, the laboring and the learned. The laboring will need 
the first grade of education to qualify them for their pursuits 
and duties : the learned will need it as a foundation for further 
acquirements. A plan was formerly proposed to the Legisla- 
ture of this state for laying ofi' every county into Hundreds or 
Wards of five or six miles square, Vv-Hhin each of which should 
be a school, for the education of the children of t!ie ward, 
■wherein they should receive three years instruction gratis, in 
reading, writing, arithmetic, as far as fractions, the roots and 
ratios, and geography. The Legislature at one time tried an 
ineSectual expedient fur introducing this plan, v;hich having 
failed, it is hoped they will some day resume it in a more 
promising form. 

2. GEJYEBAL SCHOOLS. 

At the discharging of the pupils from the elementary schools, 
the two classes separate; timse destined for labor will engage 
in the business of agriculture, or enter into apprenticeships to 
such handicraft art as may be their choice; their companions, 
destined to the pursuits of science, will proceed to the Col- 
lege, which will consist 1st. of General Schools; and 
2d. of FiioFEssioNAL ScuooLs. The Gener AL Schools will 
constitute the 2d Grade of education. 

The learned class may still be subdivided into two sections : 
1. Those who are destined for learned piofeshioils, as a means 



14? SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

of livelihood; and 2. The wealtliy, who, possessing indepen- 
dent fortunes, may aspire to share in conductinj; the aftairs of 
the nation, or to live with usefulness nad respect in the private 
ranks of life. Both of these sections will require instrudion 
in all fhe higher branches of science; the wealthy to qualify 
them for either public or private life; the professional section 
will need those branches, especially, which arc the basis of 
their future profession, and a genera! knowledge of the others, 
as auxiliary to that, and necessary 1o their standing, and asso- 
ciating with the scientific class. All the branches then of use- 
ful science ought to be taught in the General Schools, to a com- 
petent extent, iti the first instance. These sciences may be 
arranged into three departments, not rigorously scientific in- 
deed, but sufficiently so for our purpose. These are, 
i. Language. II. Mathematics. III. Philosophy. 

I. Language. In the first department, I would arrange a 
tlistinct science, 1. Languages and history, ancient and mod- 
ern: 2. Grammar: 3. Belles Lettres : 4. llhetoric and Ora- 
tory: 5. A school for the deaf, dumb, and blind. History is 
here associated with languages, not as a kindred subject, but 
on a principle of economy, because both may be attained by 
the same course of reading, if books aie selected with tliat 
view. 

II. Mathematics. In the department of Mathematics, I 
should place distinctly, 1. Mathematics pure: 2. Physico- 
mathematics : 3. Physics: 4. Chemistry: 5. Natural History, 
to wit, Mineralogy: 6. Botany : and 7. Zoology: 8. Anatomy : 
9. the Theory of Medicine. 

HL Philosophy. In the Philosophical dep?rtment, I should 
distinguish, 1. Ideology: 2. Kthics: 3. the Law of Nature and 
Nations: 4. Government: 5. Political Economy. 

But, some of these terms being used by diiferent writers, in 
different degrees of extension, I shall define exactly what I 
mean to comprehend in each of thetn. 

I. 5. Within tlie term of Belles Lettres, I include Poetry 
and Composition generally, and Criticism. 

XL 1. 1 consider Pure Mathematics as the science of I. 
Numbers, and 2. Measure in the abstract : that of Numbers, 
comprehending Aritlxmetic, Algebra and Fluxions j that of 



SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION. 15 

Measure (under the general appellation of Geonietry) com- 
prehending Trigonometry, plane and spherical, Conic sec- 
tions, and transcendental curves. 

11. 2. Piiysico-'VIathematics treat of Physical subjects hy 
the aid of Mathematical calculation. Tliese are Mecban'.cs, 
Statics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, Ilydrodnymics, Navigation, 
Asfronoiny, Geography, Optics, Pneumatics, Acoustics. 

II. 3. Physics, or Natural Philosophy [_not entering 
the limits of Chemistry,] treat of natural substances, their 
properties, mutual relations and action. They particularly 
examine the subjects of motion, action, magnetism, electricity, 
galvanism, light, meteorology, Mith an &c. not easily enume- 
rated. These definitions and specifications render immaterial 
the question vvhcdier I use the GcMeric terms in the exact de- 
gree of comprehension in which others use tiicm: to be under- 
stood, is all that is necessary to the present object. 

5. PROFESSlOjy^jlL SCHOOLS, 

At the close of this course, the students separate ; the weal- 
thy retiring, with a sufficient stock of knov/ledge, to impYove 
themselves to any degree to which their views may lead them, 
and the professional section to the Professional schools, 
constituting the 3d Grade of education, and teaching the 
particular sciences which the individuals of this section mean 
to pursue, with more minuteness and detail than was within 
the scope of the general schools for the 2d Grade of instruc- 
tion. In these Professional schools each science is to be 
taught in the highest degree it has yet attained, — Thej are ti> 
be the 

1st Department, tlie Fine Arts, io ivit, Civil Architecture, 
Gardening, Painting, Sculpture, and the theory of Music; the 

Qd Department, Architecture, Military and Naval Projec- 
tiles, Rural Economy, (comprehending Agriculture, Horticul- 
ture, and Vetorinar}',) Technical Philosophy, the Practice of 
Medicine, Materia Medica, Pharmacy and Surgery. In the 

od Department, Theology and Ecclesiastical History, Law, 
Municipal and Foreign. 

To these professional schools will come those who separated 
at the close of their Ist Elementary course, to wit: 



16 SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

The Lavk^yer to the school of Law. ' 

The Ecclesiastic to that of Theology and Ecclesiasticat 

History. 
The Physician to those of the Practice of Medicine, Ma- 
teria Medica, Pharmacy and Surgery. 
The Military man to that of Military and Naval Archi- 
tecture and Projectiles. 
The Agricultor to that of Rural Economy. 
The Gentleman, the Architect, the Pleasure Gardener, 
Painter and Musician, to the school of Fine Arts; 
and to that of Technical Philosophy will come the mariner, 
carpenter, ship-wright, purap-maker, clock -maker, mechanist, 
optician, metallurgist, founder, cutler, druggist, brewer, vint- 
ner, distiller, dyer, painter, bleecher, soap-maker, tanner, pow- 
der-maker, salt-maker, glass-maker, to learn as much as shall 
be necessary to pursue their art understandingly, of the scien- 
ces of geometry, mechanics, statics, hydrostatics, hydraulics, 
hydrodnymics, navigation, astronomy, geography, optics, pneu- 
matics, acoustics, physics, chemistry, natural history, botany, 
mineralogy, and pharmacy. 

The school of Technical Philosophy, will differ essentially 
in its functions from the other Professional schools. The others 
are instituted to ramify and dilate the particular sciences taught 
in the schools of the 2d Grade on a general scale only. The 
Technical school is to abridge those which were taught there 
too much in extenao for the limited wants of the artificer or 
practical man. These artificers must be grouped together, 
according to the particular branch of science in which they 
need elementary and practical instruction ; and a special lec- 
ture or lectures should be prepared for each group — and these 
lectures should be given in the evening, so as not to interrupt 
the labors of the day. This school particularly should be main- 
tained wholly at the public expense, on the same principles 
with that of the Ward schools. Through the whole of the 
Collegiate course, at the hours of recreation on certain days, 
all the Students should be taught the manual exercise, military 
evolutions and manoeuvres, should be under a standing organ- 
ization as a military corps, and with proper officers to train 
and command them. 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 17 

A Tabular statement of this distribution of the sciences 
will place the system of instruction more particularly in view ; 

1st, or Elementary Grade in the Ward schools. 
Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography. 

2d. Or General Grade. 
1. Language and History, ancient and modern. 

2. Matheziatics^ viz. 
Mathematics pure. § Anatomy. 

Phvsico-Mathematlcs. § Theory of Medicine. 

Physics. r Zoology. 

Chemistry. k Botany; and Mineralogy. 

3. Thxlosofht^ viz. 
Ideology; and Ethics. § Government. 

Law of Nature and Nations. § Political Economj, 

3d. Or Professional Grades. 

Theology and Ecclesiastical History, 

Law, JShinicipal and Foreign. 

Practice of Medicine. 

Materia-Mcdica and Pharmacy. 

Surgery. 

Architecture, Military and Naval, and Projectiles* 

Technical Philosophy, 

Rural Economy. ^ 

Fine Arts. 
On this survey of the field of science, I recur to the ques- 
tion, what portion of it we mark out for the occupation of our 
institution? With the 1st Grade of education, we shall have 
nothing to do. The sciences of the 2d Grade are our first ob- 
ject — and, to adapt them to our slender beginnings, we must 
separate them into groups, comprehending many sciences each, 
and greatly more, in the first instance, than ought to be im- 
posed on, or can be competently conducted by a single profes- 
sor permanently. They must be subdivided from time to time, 
as our means increase, until each professor shall have no more 
under his care than he can attend to with advantage to his 
pupils and ease to himself. In the further advance of our re- 
sources, the professional schools must be introduced, and pro- 



iS SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDTJCATION. 

fessorships established for Iheai also. For the present, we maj 
group the sciences into Professorsiiips. as ibllows — subject, 
hoAvever, to be changed, according to the qualiftcations ol" the 
persons we may be able to engage. 

I. Professorship. 
Language and History, ancient and modern. 
Belles Lettres. — Rhetoric, and Oratory. 

II. rrofcssorsh ip. 
Mathematics pure. — Physico-Mathematics. 
Physics. — Anatomy. — Medicine. — Theory. 

III. Frofessorshlp. 
Chemistry. — Zoology. — Botany. — Mineralogy. 

lY. Frofessorship. 
Philosophy. 

The organization of the brancli of the Institution which res- 
pects its government, police and econom3\ depending on prin- 
ciples which have no affinity with those of its institution, may 
be the subject of separate and subsequent consideration. 

With this tribute of duty to the Board of Trustees, accept 
the assurance of my great esteem and consideration. 

Til : JEFFERSON. 



HEFGRT of the Fresident and Directors of the Liierary 
Fund, to the General Jssenibbfy in December, 1816. 
In obedience to the resolution of the General Assembly, of 
the 2Uh of February, 1816, declaring, "That the President 
and Directors of the Literary Fund be reqnested to digest, and 
report to the General Assembly, a system of public education, 
calculated to give effect, to the appropriations made to that ob- 
ject by the Legislature heretofore, and during its present ses- 
sion, and to comprehend in such system the establishment of 
an University, to be called " The University of Virginia,^^ and 
such additional Colleges, Academies and Schools, as shall dif- 
fuse the benefits of educationj throughout the Commonwealth, 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 19 

and such rules, for the government of such University, Colleges, 
Academies, and Schools, as shall produce economy in tl\e ex- 
penditures hv the establishment and maintenance, and good 
order and discipline in the management thereof," the President 
and Directors of the Literary Fund respectfully report: 

That they have entered, on the discharge of ihe important 
duties committed to them, with all the solicitude which would 
naturally arise from the magnitude of the trust, and the diffi- 
culties attendant on the subject. 

In cosnmon with their fellow-citizens at large, they hail with 
pleasure, and delight, the liberal spirit of improvement, which 
dawns upon their country, and which displays itself, not only 
in what contributes to an increase of the conveniences, the 
comforts and wealth, but also in the advancement of the intel- 
ligence and knowledge of the people. In all enlightened coun- 
tries, national education lias been considered one of the first 
concerns of the Legislator, and as intimately connected with 
the prosperity of the state. In free states, where the govern- 
ment is founded upon, and is the organ of the public will, it is 
indispensably necessary that that will should be eidightened. 
It is the proud prerogative of free governments to be founded 
in virtue, and intelligence. They go hand in hand ; and, by 
imparting a full knowledg;e of the lights of mankind, and se- 
curing obedience to laws framed Vvith wisdom, and admin- 
istered with impartiality, tlicy give that happiness to^tlie com- 
munity, which despotic power never can confer. In a republic 
too, every citizen can aspire to the highest ofiices of the slate. 
He may become a legislator, a judge, or be called to fill the of- 
fice of first magistrate, flow deeply interested, then, is the 
community, in the formation of a system, which shall enable 
the youth of our country to discharge the high duties that await 
them, with honor to themselves, and advantage to the State ? 
These considerations, with many others, wliich might be sug- 
gested, shew the extreme importance of the subject, committed 
to the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, and im- 
press on them fully the nature and extent of their responsibil- 
ity. In addition to the intrinsic difficulties of the subject of 
education, it is necessary, in the formation of any system of 
this sort, to consult the peculiar situation of tiic country, for 



so SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, 

which it is intended. Into this estimate must enter, a re<2;ard 
to the state of its population, the degree of p faction to wh.ich 
science has attained, the progress of the arts, and, a ove all, the 
means, which it is in the power of the state to apply to such 
establishments. It cannot be expected, that the system which 
may be adopted will, in its commencement, be perfect. This 
is not the lot of human institutions, even of those whicli are 
the result of the greatest experience, and the most indefatigable 
labour. Much less, is any thing like perfection to be expected 
from the first attempts made by a people, comparatively in 
their infancy, and where public establishments for instruction 
have been very limited. One great consolation which presents 
itself on the subject, is, that as tlie system about to be adopted 
by the Legislature, whatever it may be, will be a national one, 
it will be subject to the control of the national will, and miy 
be modified and improved, as experience may direct. It would 
appear that some former efforts, made by tlie Legislature for 
the establishment of schools, failed. Tliis probably was owing 
to the circumstance that no revenues were set apart for the 
support of such institutions; and they were made too much to 
depend on the funds to be extracted directly from the people. 
We may anticipate a more auspicious result, from the system 
now adopted, where means are provided, in a manner not bur- 
thensome to the community, for imparting the benefits of in- 
struction, and science, to the poorest children in the state. It 
is worthy of remark, that one source of support to the Literary 
Fund, is.derived from the tines, penalties, and forfeitures, im- 
posed on the violators ot the laws of the state. Thus, by a happy 
feature in the system, vice and immorality are made to pay an 
involuntary tribute to virtue, and to provide the means of their 
own extinction. 

It appears from the terms of the resolution of the General 
Assembly, that the plan of education, contemplated by tiiem, 
embraces three essential parts, which are, however, intimately 
connected, are subsidiary to each other, and constitute one 
system. The arrangement of this system seems to be dic- 
tated by considerations of great propriety. It contemplates 
taking abo}' who is ignorant of the rudiments of learning, and 
iirst iinparting to liiui those rudimeutsj next, placing him in 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. SI 

a seminary, where he can obtain a higher rlegree of informa- 
tion ; and, finally, in a University, where every kind of sci- 
ence attainable in this country can be acquired. The steps 
in this progress are natural and rc,2;ular, and present, at a 
glance, an outline of such a system as it is ptopor to adont. 
The President and Directors of the Literary Fund submit to 
the Legislature ihp. subject, under the different divisions, of 
which it is susceptible; and v.-ill recommend to their adoption, 
such provisions as appear to them best adapted to the situation 
of the country, and to the extent of the funds established for 
this object. In doing so, they will forbear to enter into a mi- 
nute detail, from a belief, that the most important thiii<^ is to 
fix the great principles of the plan, to be established ; after 
which it will be easy to supply, by an act of the legislature, 
the numerous provisions, which will be neces-iiary. The sub- 
ject is divisible into Primary Schools, Academies, and an Uni- 
versity. They will be considered in their order. 

PRIMJRF SCHOOLS. 

The object of these, is, to have a school so convenient to 
each citizen, that his children may be taught at le:ist the rudi- 
ments of learning. It would be a melancholy reflection, if a 
single youth of our country should, from poverty, be deprived 
of every ray of knowledge— And yet, how many hundreds, of 
perhaps the first geniuses of our land, are condemned to grope 
out their lives in a state of intellectual darkness. To ob- 
viate this calamitous state of things, must be the object of the 
Primary Schools. A difficulty will occur in adopting a rule 
for the location of these schools. If resort is had to extent 
of territory, it will frequently happen, that the population 
will be so sparse, in some parts of the state, that a school will 
not be useful in particular limits. — If population be the rule, 
Avithout regard to territory, then, tiiat population m.ay be so 
dispersed, that a sufilcieut number of pupils, will not be ob- 
tained, within a convenient distance. It would perhaps be 
better, to have regard butii to territory and population, in as- 
signing the number of schools, and to vest a discretion, to a 
certain extent, in the trustees to be appointed for the regula- 
tion and management of those schools, as to the proper posi- 



SS SYSTEM OF PUBUC EDUCATIO?^. 

f ions for them. It is expected, that the Primary Schools, wili 
be in part supported by pupils, sent by persons who are ia 
circumstances to pay for the schooling of their children; and 
that it will be only necessary to appropriate a certain propor- 
tion of the salaries of the teachers, out of the Literary Fund. 
In the Primary Schools, it is supposed, that the rudiments of 
learning only are to be tau2;ht, which will comprehend read- 
in;^, writing, and common arithmetic. Boys when well ground- 
ed in these, will he prepared, to be sent to the Academy. It 
is recommended to the Legislature, therefore: 

1. That each county in the state, be divided into town- 
ships, to contain not fewer than housekeepers, and that, in 
each township, there be established one Primary School, to be 
located in the manner herein provided for, upon condition, 
that in such township acres of land, and a sufficient house, 
shall be provided and vested in the President and Directors of 
the Literary Fund. The President and Directors, cannot for- 
bear to remark, that the subdivision of the counties into smaller 
districts may be made highly beneficial in many other respects, 
such as the care of roads, the poor, and almost every other ob- 
ject of police. 

2. That seven persons shall be selected by the housekeepers, 
in each township, who shall be trustees of the Primary School 
therein. That they shall have power to fix the scite of said 
school, to superintend and manage the same, make rules for its 
government, appoint a teacher, or remove him for incapacity, 
or misconduct. That they shall select such children, whose 
parents are unable to pay for their schooling, who shall be 
taught at the said school for three years, without charge. The 
said trustees shall be elected annually, and shall fill up the va- 
cancies which may occur during the year. They shall report 
to tiie President and Directors of the Literary Fund the rules, 
they may adopt, for the government of said school; :md shall 
also make, once a year, reports to the said President and Di- 
rectors, of the state of the school, the numbers and conduct of 
the pupils, and their progress in learning; the conduct of the 
teacher, and also every thing connected Vv'ith tlie school, of any 
importance; which reports shall be carefully filed away by the 
Glerk of the Literary Fund, &o that the board, or the legisla- 



SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION". 23 

tare, may, at all limes, have a view of the condition of the Pii- 
mary Schools, throu<i;hout the CoiTi',iion\vcalt!i. 

3. That the teacher at each Priiiiary School may, in addi- 
tion to the pupiis which are there to be taught, without ciiarge, 
receive as many additional scholars, and at tlie rates that the 
trustees of the said school may estahlish; and that the trustees 
may purchase, for the use of the pupils educated at the public 
expense, such books and stationary, as may be necessaiy to be 
paid for out of tlie Literary Fund. 

The trustees of the Piimary Schools should be permitted 
(where practicable to adopt in them,) the nev/ mode of teach- 
ing, invented by Lancaster. It is believed, that this plan is 
admirabl}' adapted for impartingthe elements of learning — and 
as Lancastrian schools begin to be difllised throughout the coun- 
try, the facilities of acquiring teachers, qualified to instruct on 
that plan, will be increased. 

ACADEMIES. 
The next grade of places of instruction contemplated con- 
sists of Academies. — These are intermediate seminaries, be- 
tween the Primary Schools and the University. As a youth is 
prepared, by the instruction he receives in the Primary School, 
for the Academy, so it is intended that, in the latter, he shali 
acquire the attainments and qualifications, essential to his de- 
riving the full benefits of the University. In the present state 
of education in Virginia, many of our youth do not proceed 
farther, in a course of instruction, than an attendance on 
schools or academies, v/here classical learning, and the ele- 
ments of Mathematics are taught. Many have not an oppor- 
tunity of attaining these, except in an imperfect manner. If 
the system to be adopted did nothing more than multiply, and 
extend to every part of the state, the means of Academic in- 
struction, it would be doing a great deal in the cause of liter- 
ature. The benefits of Academies will not be limited to tliis 
effect — their great utility will consist in affording the necessary 
preparation, for attaining the higher branches of science and 
literature. The pupils who should be admitted to the acade- 
inies, to be clothed, educated, and boarded at the public ex- 
pense, should not exceed jit one tiraejin cuh academvp • 



2h SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

These shouW consist of the boys of the brightest genius, and 
best attainments — selected by the trustees of the Primary 
8clu)()Is, as candidates for admission to the Academy, from 
ivhom tlic trustees of the academy should choose the requisite 
number. No boy should be admitted to the academy, who had 
not passed three years at the primary school, and who could 
not read and write well, and who was not familiar with the 
application of the rules of common arithmetic. In the acade- 
mies should be taught the Greek, Latin and French languages; 
the pupils should learn, or be perfected, in the liigber rules of 
arithmetic, the six fiist books of Euclid's Elements, Algebra, 
Geography, and the Elements of Astronomy, taught with the 
Uhe of the Globes. This course of instruction, together with 
the historical and other information, which a youth ambitious 
of literary eminence will easily acquire between the hours of 
academic labor, \Aill, it is supposed, qualify him to attend, 
with profit, the lectures of the university, to which a profici- 
ency, in these branches, should be deemed an essential pass- 
port. In relation to the academies, as well as to the schools, 
the President and Directors of the Literary Fund flatter them- 
selves, that subscriptions can easily be raised, in each district, 
to purchase the scite, and to erect the necessary buildings, of 
cheap, but durable materials. The appeal to the liberality and 
the patriotism of the citizens of each district, is so forcible, 
that it is believed, it will not be made in vain. Besides, on the 
score of individual advantage, strong inducements are held out 
to obtain a compliance with what may be the recommendation 
of the legislature. — As it is contemplated to give certain sums, 
as salaries, to the masters of the academies, it will ensure the 
establishment of a respectable institution of this kind in every 
district, which frequently could not be established without such 
aid; as the expenses would fall too heavily on individuals. The 
contributions now contemplated, being distributed over a large 
district, would fall very lightly on each — It would probably be 
found, that contributions to an academy will be the cheapest 
mode in which persons can obtain instruction for their children 
—as, otherwise, they may be compelled to send them to a dis- 
tance, at a great expense, and with great inconvenience. Every 
citizen, then, who has a rising family, either old enough to edu- 



SYSTEM OF rUBLIC EDUCATION. 25 

cate at present, or who looks forward to having his dii'dreu 
educated at a future period, will be interested to give success 
to tiie plan proposed. The President and Directors of the 
Literary Fund, therefore, recoir.mend to the Legislature : 

1. That the state be divided into convenient districts, and 
that thirteen persons be appointed in each, who shall act a§ 
trustees to the academy to he established therein : that the said 
trustees shall be appointed annually by the President aud Di= 
rectors of the Literary Fimd, with a power to fill up vacancies 
in their own body, during the year; tliat the said trustees 
shall have power to receive a donation, of sufficient land, in 
some centra! and healthy part of tlieir district, as a scite for 
the academy,— and, liavin;^ obtained such donation, to open 
subscriptions in every county of their district, to receive con- 
tributions of money suiScieut to accomplish tiie hiiilding of all 
houses, necessary for the uses of such academy, which they 
shall proceed to have erected. 

2. That a necessary and reasonable proportion of the salaries 
of one principal, and two assistant teachers, in each academj--, 
be paid out of the Literary Fund, as may be agrcetl upon 
between the President and Directors of the said Literary Fundp 
and the trustees of said academies. 

S. That there shall be boarded, cloathed and educated, at 
public expen3e, boys in each academy ; viiich boys shall 

be selecte<l by the trustees thereof, from the candidates oFered 
by the Primary Schools, for that promotion; that, whenever a 
vacancy occurs in the number of pupils aforesaid, the same 
shall be filled by the said trustees from such boys, as may, at 
the time thereof, stand on the list of candidates in the Frimarv 
Schools; tliat the board and cloathing of said boys shall he paid 
out of the Literary Fund ; that the trustees of the said academy 
shall have power to superintend and manage the same, make 
rules for its government, appoint teachers, or remove the same, 
for misconduct or incapacity. They shall report to the Presi- 
dent and Directors of the Literary Fund the rules they may 
adopt for the government of said academy; and sha!!, also, 
once a year, make report to them of the state of the academy, 
the number of pupils, and also every thing connected with the 
academy, of any importance : which reports shall be carefully 
4 



S6 SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION^ 

filed away by the clerk of the laterary Fund ; so that the board 
or the le;^islatiire may, at all time*, have a view of the condi- 
tion of all the academies in the state. 

4. That it be recominended to the legislature to provide by 
law, that, wherever there may be an academy existing in any 
part of the state, which, from its local situation, may be made 
to answer the purposes of the academies contemplated in their 
resolution of the last session, that the benefits of the salaries 
intended to be given by the present plan, be extended to such 
academy, if the trustees thereof will enter into engagements, 
with the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, to edu- 
cate the number of pupils provided for, in relation to the aca- 
demies now recommended to be created. — In which event, the 
same powers and the same duties shall devolve on the trustees 
of the academy, so entering into an arrangement, as would 
have done on those created under the present system. 

5. That it shall be the duty of the trustees of said acade- 
mies, from time to time, as occasion may require, to select, from 
the number of boys educated therein at the public expense, such 
as are most distinguished for genius and acquirements, who 
shall be considered as candidates for promotion to the first va- 
cancies which shall occur in the number of pupils v.ho are to 
be educated, at the public expense, in the University of V^irgi- 
uia. And the visitors of the said university shall select, from 
the list of candidates in tha difi'ereiit academies, so many of the 
most worthy of that preference, as may be necessary to supply 
the number to be educated, free of charge, on the foundation 
of said university. Each youjig man selected by the trustees 
of the academy, and who shall not be advanced to the univer- 
sity, shall be obliged to serve as a teacher three years, if re- 
quired. 

6. That the principal teacher of said academics may, in ad- 
dition to the pupils who are to be there taught without charge, 
receive so many scholars, and at the rates that the trustees 
thereof may establish; and tlie said trustees may purchase, for 
the use of the said pupils so to be educated at the public ex- 
pense, such books and stationary as may be necessaiy, to be 
paid for out of the Literary Fund. 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EIVUCATION. S/ 

THE UJ^^IVEBSITY. 

The Kext subject, to which the President and Directors of 
the Literary Fimd beg leave to call the attention of the legis- 
lature, is the establishment of an University, to be called 
« Tlie Universili/ of Virginia.^'' — The advaniages, that will re- 
sult from the establishment of such an institution, are incal- 
culable. At present, a great proportion of our youth are sent 
out of the state, and sometimes out of the United States, for 
the acquisition of science in general, or with a view to a profi- 
ciency in some of the learned professions. Large sums of 
money are thus annually sent away, which, if expended here 
for the same object, would support a liberal and extensive 
scheme of public instruction, and contribute in otlier respects 
greatly to t!ie prosperity of tiie country. Our beins; tributary 
to a large amount to other states is, however, a small evil, com- 
pared to others we may experience. The your.g men of our 
country, by leaving their own state before thoir judgments are 
formed, will fiequently acquire elsewhere habits and opinions 
uncongenial with those of their fellow-citizens. Estranged by 
absence from the customs and principles of their parents and 
their ancestors, thev return in so'.ne degree aliens to tlieir na- 
tive land. Every enlightened statesman must consider the 
education of the youtii of a country, as intimately and insep- 
arably connected with its prosperity. It is a higli and si)lemii 
duty, which the government is bound by every consideration of 
patriotism and interest to discharge. How afflicting, tlien, 
must it be to every Virginian, who is alive to the honour and 
happiness of his country, to reflect, that so large a portion of 
our youth should seek in other states, and amongst strangers, 
that instruction which they ought to have found at home. 

The term University comprehends the whole circle of the 
arts and sciences, and extends to the utmost boundaries of 
human knowledge. The President and Directors have re- 
sorted to every source of information on this branch of the 
subject, which the shortness of the time, and their other avo- 
cations of a public and imperious nature, Vt^ould permit. So 
far as they have been able to inform tiiemselves of the consti- 
tutions ot colleges in the United Slates, or those in Europe, 
they are inclined to believe tliat scarcely any two institutions 



SB SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATIOJ*^. 

of this kind agree in the course of instruction they pursue, or 
in the distribution of tlie sciences amongst the various profes- 
sors. In some colieges, most attention is bestowed on sub- 
jects which are neglected in others; and the modes of impart- 
ing instruction, and the rules and discipline of various colleges, 
are essentially dissimilar. The system of instruction, which 
is adopted in any country, ought certainly to have relation to 
the peculiar situation of the people amongst whom it is to 
operate. In the populous countries of Europe, where labor is 
clieap, where all the active professions are over-stocked, and 
where there are multitiules of persons who devote themselves 
to literary and scientific pursuits, or the cultivation of the arts, 
human knowledge, which is derived from books, must neces- 
sarily have attained a higher degree of perfection, than in a 
country yet in its infant state, where every man is engaged 
in the exercise of a trade or profession, or in ptsshing his for- 
tune by enterprise and industry. Heie the population is thin, 
and we tind very few who devote themselves exclusively to 
scientific researches. In European countries too, colleges and 
universities being old establishments, perfected by the experi- 
ence of ages, and eniiciied by large and successive endow- 
ments, they can be carried on upon a scale which would be 
wholly incwmpatible with the means of a state which is making 
its first eft'uit to establish such institutions. Nor, are the kinds 
of studies which are adapted to tlie A\ants of Euroj)ean coun- 
tries, precisely those whit'h are suited to the situation of our 
own. Same of the arts and sciences wliich contribute to the 
ornament of society, and are peculiar objects of pursuit hi 
older countries, must be postponed, at least, to (he cultivation 
of those which are essential to the welfare of the community. 
Not tiiat these should be proscribed in our institutions, but 
attended to as secondary to such as .'uo more useful and im- 
portant in their nature. It would be a fa'al error iu us, iu 
the formation of the system now to be adopted, to attempt to 
conuuence on too large a scale. It is the part of wisdom to 
begin v.ith moderation, and to improve as it advances, rather 
than, by an unnatural or gigantic efibrt, to oxliaust its owa 
powers, and bring on prcnuitare debility and decay. If we 
|.>rocp',n} Vvith coutionj if v.c keep in view the situation of tlse 



SYSTEM OF PtULIC ED L CATION. 29 

country, and the extent of our means : if those means receive 
improvements, of which they are susceptible; and the legisla- 
ture still extends to the Literary Fund their fostering care and 
protection, it is confidently believed, that the periotl is not 
distant, when tlie anticipations of the enlightened friends of 
public instruction will be realized. The President and Direc- 
tors of the Literary Fund, upon the best consideration they 
can give the subject, recommend as follows: 

1. That there shall be appointed by tlie legislature five com- 
missioners, who shall purchase, or accept, in some central and 
healthy part of the commonwealth, to be designated by the le- 
gislature, such a quantity of land, as will be not only sufficient 
for the use of the University, but to prevent establishments in 
its nei";hborhood that would endanger the morals of the stu- 
dents, or tlieir being seduced from their studies. Provided, 
that, before the bargain for the same be binding on the state, 
it shall be sanctioned by the executive; and that the said 
commissioners shall proceed to contract for, and cause to be 
erected, under the control of tiie executive, all the necessary 
buildings for an university, to be called the University of Vir- 
ginia, the expense of erecting which buildings, and of the 
land, if purchased, shall be paid for out of the Literary Fund. 

2. That, when said buildings are complete, the said commis- 
sioners shall purcliase, for the use of the said university, all 
necessary furniture, to be paid for out of the Literary Fund, 
subject to tlie control of the President and Directors thereof. 

3. That, as soon as the said buildings shall be finished, the 
governor, with the advice of the council of state, shall proceed 
to appoint fifteen visitors, who shall serve one year; after 
Avhich, the said governor and council shall annually make a 
similar appointment of the same visitors, or others, which said 
fifteen visitors, the two senior judges of the court of appeals, 
the governor for the time being, and one of the Directors of 
the Literary Fund, to be annually designated by the board, 
shall be visitors of the University of Virginia; shall have the 
power to make all bye laws, rules and regulations for the gov- 
ernment of the said university and the good order of the same, 
as to them shall seem fit, provided they are not inconsistent 
■with the laws of this commonwealth; and that they shall have 



30 SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

power to appoint the president and professors, hereinafter pro- 
videtl for, and to have a general superintendance and control 
of the said university. 

4. That there shall be appointed by the visitors, nine pro- 
fessors of said univeisity, one of whom shall act as president, 
but shall discharge the duties of one of the professorships. 
That the said Pi-ofessorships shall cousi-^t of the following : 
1st, A Professor of Moral Philosophy, Rhetoric and Belles 
Lettres. 2d. A Professor of Law and Police. Sd. A Profes- 
sor of Matliematics. 4th. A Professor of Natural Philosophy. 
5th, A Professor of Aaatomy and Medicine. 6th. A Profes- 
sor of Military Science. 7th. A Professor of Ancient and 
Modern Languages. 8th. A Professor of the Fine Arts. 9th. 
A Professor of Cliemistry. That there be paid quarter yearly 
to the said President and Professors reasonable salaries, out of 
the Literary Fund. That the said visitors shall keep a regular 
journal of their proceedings, in which tliey shall state particu- 
larly the manner in which the University is conducted; the 
rules they may adopt for its government; the progress which 
is made in sciencs therein, and every thing of importance con- 
nected therewith, to be annually submitted to the Genei;ai 
Assembly. 

5. That there be educated, boarded and clothed, at the pub- 
lic expense, to be paid out of the Literary Fund, tan young 
men, to be selected by the visitors from the candidates in the 
academies, before spoken of. Each young man so educated, 
shall remain four years at said university ; and in case of va- 
cancies, they shall be supplied by the choice of the visitors, 
out of the academies aforesaid. Each of whom so educated 
shall be bound to serve four years in either of the academies, 
as principal or assistant teachers, if required. That the visi- 
tors of the said university shall supply the said scholars, who 
are to be educated at the public expense, with the necessary 
cloathing, books and stationary, to be paid for out of the Lite- 
rary Fund. 

6. That there be established on the foundation of said uni- 
versity seven fellovv^ships, which are to be filled by the appoint- 
ment of the visitors, out of tlic most learned and meritorious 
of those who have graduated at said university, who shall re- 



StSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 31 

ceive annually reasonable and moderate salaries out of the 
Literary Fund, and shall be obliged to serve four years aa 
principal teachers in one of the academies, if required so to do. 
There ate two things recommended in the above plan, whicli 
demand some explanation. The first is the recommendation 
of a Professor of Military Science, and the second the adop- 
tion of fellowships, on the foundation of the university. In 
relation to the first, the President and Directors of the Lite- 
rary Fund beg leave to remark, that there is a great want of 
Military Science in our country. That, thougli the govern- 
ment of the United States have the power to establish Military 
Schools, and have established one, yet that is not commensu- 
rate with the wants of the caantry; nor dges it preclude the 
necessity, or lessen the duty of the states, to impart to their 
citizens such a share of the military art, as may be highly es- 
sential in time of war, when the safety of the state may be 
endangered. — In fice governments, great reliance is placed in 
the first stages of war, indeed through all time of a defensive 
war, on militia. In republics, every soldier is a citizen, which 
renders it a solemn duty that, to a certain extent, every cit- 
izen should be a soldier. It is not enough, that every man 
understands that the country ought to be preserved indepen- 
dent; that he possesses certain riglits which are sacred and 
imprescriptible ; there is an obligation on him, to place him- 
self in a situation, and obtain that knowledge, which shall en- 
able him to preserve the high privileges he possesses, and 
transmit them unimpaired to posterity. This power, military 
science confers. For, though valor and patriotism will do 
much, yet they will do much more when combined with dis- 
cipline and military information. An occasion now offers of 
communicating to the youth of our country, upon whom we 
must rely as its defenders, the principles of military science, 
to a considerable extent. It is not expected that the lectures, 
or instruction of a professor, can alone make an officer. But 
they may lay a foundation of knovviedge, which will be highly 
useful in the formation of the military man. It is believed 
that the Professor of Military Science, would embrace in his 
course of iiistruciion, amongst others, the following objects ; 
Engineering and Giuunery j The formation and laying off of 



3S SYSTEM or PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

camps ; The means of preserving the health of soldiers ; Camp 
discipline and police; The apparatus of war; The formatioa 
of arsenals and magazines j Fortification. It would be useful 
also, if the Professor of Military Science, should have author- 
ity to employ, as auxiliary to his professorship, a fit person to 
instruct the students in the manual exercise, the use of the 
broad sword, fencing, and the elements of military tactics, so 
as to enable them to understand and to direct, or perform the 
more simple evolutions. These athletic and manly exercises, 
might be used in the intervals of study, and whilst they would 
■win our youth from habits of dissipation, give grace and agility 
to the body, and preserve their health, they would familiarize 
them with military ideas, and the use of arms. 

The recommendation of the establishment of fellowships 
is founded on a wish to encourage the ardent pursuit of sci- 
ence in such young men, who, though destitute of the means 
of obtaining an education, have been selected for their talents, 
and instiucted and supported at the public expense. It is to 
them we ought to look, as the source which is to supply us with 
teachers and professors ; and thus by the service they will 
render in imparting instruction to the youth of tiie country, 
they will amply repay what that country has done for their 
benefit. Besides, it is a consideration of great importance, 
that you create a corps of literary men, who, enabled by re- 
ceiving a decent competence, to devote their whole time to 
the pursuits of science, will enlarge its l)0undarics, and diffuse 
through the community a taste and relish for the charms of lit- 
erature. The effect produced by concentrating at one place 
many literary men, whose co-operation, as well as whose col- 
lisions, will excite a generous spirit of emulation, is incal- 
culable. 

In recommending the establishment of new schools, acade- 
mies, and an university, the president and directors confine 
themselves within the limits of the resolution of the general 
assembly. But, in enquiring into the best means to advance by 
new institutions the cause of public instruction, we must not 
be unmindful that we have at present in the state, various aca- 
demies and a college. Several of these academies are believed 
to be respectable J aiid the propriety of including them m the 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 33 

general system, by imparting to them a portion of tlic Literary 
Fund, has been already suggested. In relation to the college 
of William and Mary, it affords the President and Directors 
great pleasure to be enabled to state, that they have every 
reason to believe that this institution affords at present strong 
evidence of prosperity ; that the professorships are filled with 
ability; and that the students are numerous, and increasing 
daily. The commonwealth is greatly interested in the wel- 
fare of this institution, and ought to count largely on the as- 
sistance it v/ill aftbrd in diffusing the benefits of science and 
literature amongst our citizens. The funds of this college 
are believed to be ample for its ordinary expenditure: but if 
any assistance is required, the President and Directors recom- 
mend to the General Assembly to appropriate an adequate 
sum, out of the Literary Fund. 

The President and Directors liave submitted to the legisla- 
ture what they consider the best organization of schools, &c. 
for this commonwealth ; but they are not so sanguine as to be- 
lieve that it can be carried into effect at once to its full ex- 
tent, witliout a considerable augmentation of their lands. Ifc 
is, therefore, respectfully referred to the legislature to decide, 
whether it would not be better to execute the system by de- 
grees ; to extend its operation, as the fund may be increased ; 
and in its application always to keep in view the ultimate 
completion of the whole. With these impressions, it is re- 
commended, that the product of the fund be immediately ap- 
plied to the establishment of a scliool in each township, as 
indicated by the foregoing plan; that an academy be thes es- 
tablished in each district; and that, after the accomplishment 
of these ohjects, the surplus that may remain, be applied to 
found and support the University of Virginia. In order to 
expedite the operation and perfection of the system, it is eai-- 
nestly recommended to the General Assemfdy to ani;ment the 
fund, by additional appropriations. In recommending to com- 
mence with Primary Schools, the President and Directors have 
been influenced by no consideration but a belief that the great- 
est public benefit would be thereby derived. It is supposed 
that no fewer than twenty thousand of the youth of this state 
may receive instruction in these schools at the same time. The 
5 



34* SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATIOS", 

President and Directors cannot believe that an object of so 
much importance ought to be postponed for any other. But 
they trust that, from their preference of these, no inference 
•will be drawn of their entertaining opinions unfavorable to 
the other branches of the system; or, that their execution 
should be delayed one moment beyond the period when it may 
be practicable. 

The President and Directors of tlie Literary Fund have en- 
deavored to obtain, by a correspondence with some of the most 
enlightened citizens of the United States, particularly of those 
who have had most experience in conducting literary institu- 
tions, such information as would enable them to report a sys- 
tem of rules and regulations for the government of the Uni- 
versity, Academies and Schools, lliough they have been fa- 
vored with answers from some of the gentlemen alluded to, 
they do not think they have sufficient data as yet to comply 
with that part of the resolution of the General Assembly. 
The nature of the rules will depend in some degree on the 
principles of the system the legislature shall adopt. It is believed 
by the President and Directors, that it would be best to leave 
tliis part of the subject to the visitors of the university, when 
appointed, who, as it is presumed they will be citizens selected 
for their wisdom and their experience, can, by comparing the 
various systems now in force in the different colleges in the 
union, extract from them such provisions as will be adapted 
to the situation of our university, and contribute to its 
prosperity. If it should, however, be the opinion of the legis- 
lature that it is expedient for the President and Directors of 
the Literary Fund to perform that duty, they will do it in the 
best manner they can, as soon as they can collect the necessary 
materials for the purpose. All which is respectfully sub- 
mitted. 

By order of the Board, 

W. C. NICHOLAS, President 

Teste, 

Wm. MUNFORD, Cleric to the Literary Fund. 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EUUCATiOK. 35' 



d BILL, " Froviding for the establishment of Primary 
Schools, Academies, Colleges, and an University ;^^—> 
passed the House of Delegates the ISth, and rejected by 
the Senate the 20th of February, 1817. 

Be it enacted by the General Jlssemhly, That, for the purpose 
of digesting and carrying into efiect, the system of public ed- 
ucation provided for by the last (Jcneral Assembly, and recom- 
mended by the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, 
there shall be elected annually, by join+ ballot of the Senate 
and House of Delegates, ten directors, who shall he styled 
" The Board of Public Instruction,''^ in which name diey shall 
have a common seal and perpetual succession ; shall be capable 
of suing and being sued ; pleading and being impleaded ; and 
shall have and enjoy all the rights and privileges of a corpo- 
ration. 

And he it further enacted, That the governor of the com- 
monwealth shall be, ex officio, president of •' the board of pub- 
lic instruction ; that any citizen of this commonwealth shall be 
capable of being a director of the board, but that two of the 
whole number of the directors shall reside westward of the 
Alleghany mountain ; two between the Alleghany and the Blue 
Ridge ; four between the Blue Ridge and the great post road, 
which passing tlirough the territory of the commonwealtli, cros- 
ses the principal rivers thereof at or about the head of tide 
Avater, and the residue between that road and the sea-coast. 
The board shall annually elect from their own body a vice- 
president, who, in tlie absence of the President, shall preside 
over their deliberations; tiiej shall liave power also to appoint 
a secretary, and such officers as may be required for conduct- 
ing the business of the board, who shall receive for their services 
such compensation as tlie board may allow, to be paid out of 
the revenue of the Literary Fund. Each director of the board 
shall receive, from the same fund, such compensation for his 
services as may be allowed by law, which, until otherwise pro- 
vided, shall be the same mileage for travelling to and from the 
place of sitting, and the same, per diem, during his necessary 
attendance on the board, as is now allowed by law to a member 



36 SYSTEM OP PUBLIC HDTJ CATION, 

of the General Assembly. A majoiity of the whole number of 
directors shall be necessary to constitute a board for the trans-; 
action of business; but the president, or a single director, may 
adjourn from day to day, until a board is formed. The board 
shall have power to fill any vacancy which may occur in their 
own body, either from death, resignation, removal, inability, or 
any other cause; they shall hold an annual meeting at Char- 
lottesville, or at such other place as may be designated by law, 
until the University of Virginia shall be erected; after wliich, 
their annual meetings shall be held thereat. Their first annual 
iiveeting shall commence on the second Monday in August next, 
and continue until the business of the board is transacted. 

At this meeting, the board shall prescribe the time of their 
future annual meetings; but the president of the board may, at 
his own pleasure, or shall, at the request of any three directors 
thereof, convene an extra meeting of the board, for the transac- 
tion of any extraordinary business which may devolve on the 
corporation. 

%3nd be it further enacted, That the board may, at anytime, 
enact, alter or amend such rules as to them may seem proper, 
for the purpose of regulating the order of their proceedings; 
they may adjourn for any period: or, when occasion may re- 
quire it, meet at any other place than that designated by law : 
tiiey shall have power, subject to the limitations hereinafter 
provided, to establish and locate an Universitj^ to be called the 
University of Virginia, and the several colleges and academies 
hereinafter named or described ; to determine the number and 
titles of the professorships therein; to examine, appoint, and 
regulate the compensation of the several professors; to ap- 
point the trustees of the several colleges and academies; to 
prescribe the course of instruction and discipline of the univer- 
sit} > colleges, academies, and primary scliools; to provide some 
just and particular mode of advancing from the primary schools 
to the academies, from the academies to the colleges, and 
from these to the university, as many of the most meritorious 
chiklien of indigence, as the revenue of t!ie literary fund may 
suifice to educate and maintain, aiter the whole system of pub- 
lic instruction, which the board may devise, shall have been put 
in operation. In Iruming this system, the board shall regard 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. B7 

the primary schools as its foundation; and in its grad'ial exe- 
cution, caie shall be taken by the board of public ini.truc.)inn, 
and by the president and directors of the Literary Fund tlat 
no money shall be drawn from the revenue of that fuitd fdrthe 
establishment of the university, or any academy or college, so 
long as it is probable that such an application of the fund may 
leave any primary school unprovided for. In fine, the board of 
public instruction shall have power to enact, repeal, alter or 
amend such bye-laws, rules and regulations relative to the va- 
rious objects committed lo their trust, as to them may Si.^ein 
expedient, provided the same be not iucoi5sis(ent \v:iU the con- 
stitution and lav/s of Virginia, or of the United States of Ame- 
rica; and they are farther authorised to recommend to the Gen- 
eral Assembly, from time to time, such general laws in relation 
to public education, as may be calculated, in tiieir opinion, to 
promote the iutcllectual and moral improvement of the com- 
monwealth. 

Be it further enctcted, That there shall be established within 
the commonwealth as many primary scliools as sliall tend to 
promote t\\Q easy diftuslou of knowledge among the youth of 
all classes of society ; and for establishing and properly regu- 
lating such schools, the whole territory of the commonwealth 
shall be divided into small and convenient jurisdictioos, to be 
denominated townships and wards. — For this purpose the sev- 
eral county and corporation courts shall, at their next May, 
June, July or August term, appoint three commissioners, with 
authority to divide their respective counties into two or more 
tovvnsiiips, and their respective corporations into two or more 
Avards; provided that no township shall contain fewer than 
thirty square miles; that where any city, borough or town 
does not contain more than one hundred white families, it shall 
be comprehended in some township; where its population ex- 
ceeds that number, and does not reach two hundred white fitm- 
ilies, it shall constitute one ward; and where its population 
exceeds the number last mentioned, it may be divided into two 
or more wards, according to the discretion of tiie commission- 
ers. The commissioners shall give separate denominations to 
each township and ward, so as to distinguish them from each 
other by name; and shall designate some central or convenient 



38 SYSTEM OF PUELIC EDUCATION. 

place in each for the public meetings required to be held there- 
in. They shall derive the boundaries of their townships and 
%vards, from their county and corporation lines, and tlie moun- 
tains, streams of water, roads or streets intersecting their coun- 
ties or corporations, without regard to straight lines; and, bav- 
ins; described tlieir townships or wards intelligibly, in writing, 
shall report them to their respective county or corporation 
courts. In performing this duty, the co'nmissioners shall as- 
.«emble at the seat of justice in their respective counties or cor- 
porations; and shall receive each the sum of two dollars, for 
every day, not exceeding three in number, during which t!iey 
shall be so engaged in the public service. Tbey shall sign and 
deliver their report, when finished, to the clerk of their cnunty 
or corporation court, who shall certify the report to the court, 
and the number of days employed by each commissioner in 
preparing the said report. — Such certificate shall entitle the 
commissioners to receive such sum, as it may specify, out of 
the ensuing c,ounty levy: and the court shall regulate the county- 
levy so as to provide therefor. 

As soon as the court shall receive the report, they shall at- 
tentively examine the same ; and after making such corrections 
or alterations therein, as they may deem necessary or expedi- 
ent, they shall cause the clerk to insert the report, with the 
corrections and alterations, if any have been made, in the record 
of their proceedings; and the said report, so recorded, shall 
he deemed and taken to be complete : Provided tliat the court 
may in the same manner, at any time thereafter, alter the boun- 
dary of any township or ward, or increase the number of town- 
ships or wards within their respective jurisdictions. 

Jhid be it further enacted. That vv'henever any person or per- 
sons, body politic or corporate, in any township or ward, shall 
provide a lot of ground of two acres in extent, or of the value 
uf two hundred dollars, with a school-house thereupon of the 
value of two hundred and fifty dollars, and convey the same 
to the president and directors of the Literary Fund, and have 
i]\e. convoy^ance therefor recorded in the proper con it. and trans- 
mit a certified copy thereof to tlie said president and direc- 
tors, said house shall be regarded as a primary school -house. 
The value or extent of the lot and house above mentioned, to 



SYSTEM OP FtBLlC EDUCATION. 3D 

be ascertained by any three freclioltlers, to be appointed by 
any magistrate residing in a neighboring township or ward 5 
and the valuation, when made, to be certified by a majority of 
the said freeholders to the president and directors of the Lite- 
rary Fund. 

And be it further enacted, That whenever one or more pri- 
mary school -houses shall have been provided, in manner afore- 
said in any township or ward, t!ie court of the county, or 
corporation containing such township or ward, sLail appoint 
three or more discreet persons residing within the same, to 
hold an election therein, of five trust ee*, for the government 
of such primary school, and of all other similar schools, winch 
may be at any time thereafter established within the limits of 
such township or ward. Tlie commissioners so appointed 
shill give as public notice as practicable, of the time of hold- 
ing the election, which shall be in not less than thirty, nor 
more than sixty, days after the appointment. The place of 
holding such election shall be that designated for all public, 
meetings within the township or ward. The mode of election 
shall be viva voce, and shall correspcmd, as nearly as possible, 
in all respects with that of the delegates to the General As- 
sembly. The polls shall be opened at ten o'clock in the morn- 
ing of the day of election, and closed at sun set, or sooner, if 
there be no opposition. All free white male house-keepers, 
within the township or ward, shall have the right of sufiVage. 
And when the polls shall have been closed, the commissioners 
shall proclaim the five persons having the greatest number of 
votes polled, to be duly elected trustees for one year, or until 
the next election, of the primary schools of the township or 
ward for which the election shall have been held ; and they 
shall certify to the court of the county or corporation, the 
names of the trustees so elected ; the number of votes given 
for each, and the date of the election ; which certificate shall 
be recorded by the clerk. Every election, after the first, iu 
any township or ward, shall be held on the first Monday of 
May in every year, under the direction of commissioners ap- 
pointed as aforesaid : But should the election fail for any 
cause, to be made on the day appointed, the trustees in office, 
for the past, shall serve for tlie ensuing year, and until their 



4tf SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

successors shall be elected in manner aforesaid. The trustees 
shall have power to fill any vacancy which may occur in their 
own body, either from death, resignation, removal, inability, or 
other cause. They shall have power to elect one of their own 
body president thereof, who, with any two others, may consti- 
tute a board for transacting all necessary business devolving on 
the trustees of the primary schools of the township or ward. 
Their first meeting shall be held where their election was held ; 
every other meeting, at such place as the board of trustess 
may from time to time prescribe. 

»ind he it further enacted. That the board of trustees of the 
primary schools of any township or ward shall have power to 
appoint a teacher for each of the primary schools, within their 
respective townships or wards; to fix his salary, and to remove 
or displace him for incapacity or misconduct. They shall have 
authuritj'^to prescribe such rules and regulations, relative to Hie 
instruction and discipline of their schools, as may seem to them 
expedient, so that they be not inconsistent with the constitu- 
tion and laws of this state, or of the United States, or with 
Siuch general rules as the board of public instruction may pres- 
cribe, in relation to the government of the primary schools of 
the commonwealth. 

»3nd be it further enacted, That ail the free white children 
resident within the township or ward in which any primary 
school is established, or, where there is more than one such 
school within the township or ward, resident within the pre- 
cincts laid down by the trustees for any particular school, 
shall be entitled to receive tuition at such school, free of any 
charge whatever: Provided, that the board of trustees, who 
have the government of the school, may demand of such par- 
ents, guardians, or masters as are able to pay, without incon- 
venience, for the education of their children, wards or appren- 
tices, such fees of tuition as the said trustees may deem rea- 
sonable and proper : The fees to be made payable to, and to 
be collected by, such persons as the board of trustees may ap- 
point, and constitute a fund for the payment of a part of the 
salary of the teacher, and to purchase such books as may be 
necessary, for the instruction of those children who are ad- 
mitted into the school without any charge for tuition. 



SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION. 41 

And he it further enacted, That, so soon as the board of trus- 
tees of the primary schools of any township or ward, shall 
have appointed a teacher for any primary school, the president 
and directors of the literary fund shall have authority, and 
are required, on rcceiviug notice thereof, to allot out of the 
annual revenue of the literary fund two hundred dollars, for 
the salary of such teacher, and ten dollars for the purciiase of 
books and other implements of instruction, to be distributed, 
by order of the trustees, among those pupils of the school 
who are admitted therein free of charge, or who most need 
such provision. The salary of tlie teacher, and t!ie sum afore- 
said, shall be paid quarterly by the president and directors of 
the literary fund, to the order of the board of trustees, sub- 
scribed by the president thereof in behalf of the board, and 
countersigned by the clerk of the county court, v/ho shall cer- 
tify, by endorsement thereon, that the president appears, of re- 
cord, to be a trustee of the board elected for the said town- 
ship or ward. 

*ind be it further enacted, That the board of public instruc- 
tion shall, as soon as can be conveniently done, divide the ter- 
ritory of the commonwealth, from reference to the last census 
of the free white population thereof, into fortj'-cight academi- 
cal districts, containing, each, one or more counties, and as 
near as practicable, an equal number of such population, and 
cause their secretary to record such partition, having first num- 
bered the districts therein, from one upwards, in the minutes 
of their proceedings j and to transmit a certified copy thereof 
to the president and directors of the literary fund, who shall 
cause the same to be in like manner recorded; and shall also 
publish it, in one or more newspapers printed in the city of 
Richmond, for the information of tiie people of the common- 
wealth. 

Jind be it further enacted, That where there shall exist, in 
any such district, an academy already established by law or 
otherwise, the trustees, or other persons in whom the property 
of the same is vested, are autiiorised to submit to the board of 
public instruction a report of the actual condition of their 
institution, in which thej shall set forth its relative position 
to the boundaries of the district, the number and dimensions, 
6 



4S SYSTFM or PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

value and state of repair of the edifices belonging to it, and' 
the extent of the ground on which they are erected; the num- 
ber and denomination of the professors and teachers employed 
therein, and of the pupils educated thereat, in the year next 
preceding the date of the report; and, should it be the opinion 
of the board that such academy is properly situated for the 
benefit of the disti ict, and that its buildings and grounds will 
answer their intended purposes, they may report their decision 
thereupon to the president and directors of the literary fund: 
And, upon legal conveyance being made of the said ground 
and edifices to the said president and directors, for the use of 
the literary fund, the said academy shall be entitled to all the 
benefits which may be extended to any academy, which may 
be erected in pursuance of this act, and shall be subject to all 
the rules and regulations, in relation to the government thereof- 
■whicli the board of public instruction or the general assembly 
may provide for the general government of the academies of 
the commonwealth : Provided that the trustees of any sucli 
academy shall continue to hold their offices, and to supply va- 
cancies occurring in their own body, as heretofore authorised 
by law. 

Jnd be it further enacted, That, in case any such academy 
shall be chargeable with any existing debt, not exceeding one 
fourth part in amount of the actual value of its land and build- 
inf'S, or the said buildings shall require repair or any enlarge- 
ment or alteration thereof; the board of public instruction may 
recommend to the president and directors of the literary fund 
an appropriation, fiom any surplus revenue, which may remain 
of the fund, after providing for the several primary schools 
chargeable thereon, of a sum sufficient to discharge such debts, 
or to repair, alter, or enlarge the said buildings: so that such 
suni shall, in no case, exceed one fourth of the total value of 
such buildings and of the ground on which they stand. Such 
sum, the prewdent and directors, shall have power to pay, on 
the recommendation of the board, to any agent of the trustees 
of the said academy, who may be legally authorised by them 
to receive the same ; the said agent executing his bond to the 
president and directors, with approved secuiity, to apply the 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDTTCATION. 4>8 

sura aforesaid, to the purpose recommended by the board of 
public instruction. 

Jlnd be it further enacted, Tiiat where, in any academical 
district, there shall be no academy in existence, or none which 
the board of public instruction may deem it proper to recom- 
mend to the president and directors of the literary fund, the 
board may accept a lot of ground, of sufficient extent, in their 
estimation, and conveniently situated in the district, for the 
erection of an academy for the said district. Provided, that 
along with the lot of ground, there shall be subscribed, by one 
or more persons, bodies politic or corporate, (or the payment 
thereof be otherwise assured, to the president and directors of 
the literary fund,) three fourths of the sum necessary to erect 
suitable buildings thereon for such academy; which sum shall, 
in no case, be computed at less than ten thousand dollars ; and 
upon a legal conveyance of the said lot of ground being accept- 
ed by the president and directors of the literary fund, and 
their being fully assured of the payment of the sum of money 
aforesaid, of which they shall give information, in convenient 
time, to the board of public instruction, the board shall appoint 
thirteen persons, residing within the said district, trustees of 
the academy to be erected ; who shall thenceforth be deemed 
a body corporate, by such title as the board of public instruc- 
tion may prescribe; shall have authority to elect a president 
and vice-president from their own body, and to fill all vacan- 
cies subsequently occurring therein, from death, resignation, 
removal fi-om the district, inability, or any otiier cause ; shall 
have authority to provide a common seal; may sue and be 
sued ; plead and be impleaded ; and shall have and enjoy all 
the rights and privileges of a body politic in law. They may 
make, alter or amend such bye-laws, rules and regulations, as 
they shall deem necessary, or expedient, for the governm.ent 
of their own body, and of the professars, teachers and pupils 
of the academy of which they have charge: Provided the 
same be not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of 
this state, or of the United States, nor with such general regu- 
lations as the board of public instruction may provide for the 
general government of the academies of the commonwealth. 
They shall, as speedily as possible, provide by contract, or 



44 SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

otherwise, for the erection of the necessary edifices for theif 
Jicademj, and shall appoint an agent, who shall have authority 
to collect the several sums subscribed thereto, and shall be en- 
titled to receive, in virtue of their order upon the president 
and directors of the literary fund, from the unappropriated 
revenue of that fund, a sum equivalent to one third of the 
A\hole amount actually paid by the subscribers towards the 
erection of the said buildings, to be applied by the trustees to 
the same object, in aid of the subscription aforesaid. 

*3nd be it further enacted, That as soon as any academy is 
ready for the admission of pupils, the trustees of the same 
ma}' recommend to the board of public instruction any person, 
to be a professor or teacher therein, who, if approved after 
examination, in some mode to be provided by the board, shall 
thenceforth be regarded as a professor or teacher of such 
academy, but subject to removal, at the pleasure of the trus- 
tees thereof, for incapacity or misconduct, or in conformity 
with such contract as they may make with him for his services. 
Any vacancy, occurring from any cause, among the teachers 
of any such academy, shall be in like manner filled. Pro- 
vided, that, during the recess of the board of public instruction, 
the trustees may make a temporary appointment, to be con- 
fnmed or disapproved by the board, at tlieir next session. 

Jlnd he it further enacted, That the trustees of any academy 
shall have power to fix the salaries of their respective teachers, 
subject to the control of the board of public instruction ; and 
when any such salary shall have been fixed, the professor or 
teacher entitled thereto, shall receive one fourth of the annual 
amount thereof, from the president and directors of the lite- 
rary fund, to be paid quarter yearly out of such portion of the 
revenue of the said fund, as shall not be required by the claims 
of any primary school, on the order of the board of trustees 
of the academy, subscribed by the president thereof in behalf 
of the board. 

.Ind be it further enacted, That, upon the preceding condi- 
tions relative to the admission of existing academies into the 
gystem of public instruction hci eby created, or to the creation 
of nev/ academies as part of such system, the board of public 
instruction and the president and directors of the literary fund, 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 45 

are authorised to accept the Anne-Smith Academy, for the etlu- 
catioa of females; and to provide for the erection of one or 
more similar institutions. Provided, that the whole number 
^vithin the commonwealth sliall not exceed three. 

^71(1 be it further enacted^ That tlie board of public insi ruc- 
tion shall have authority to establish within the commonwealth, 
three additional colleges, to be denominated respectively, Pen- 
dleton, Vv'ythe, and Henry: the two first shall be located to 
the west of the Alleghany mountain; one whereof shall be 
placed to the north, and the other to the south of the dividing 
ridges of the mountains, which separate the head waters of 
the little Kanawha and Monongalia rivers, from tiiose of the 
rivers Greenbrier and the great Kanawha ; and the third shall 
be established in some one of the following counties below the 
Blue Ridge, vix. Orange, Madison, Culpeper, Faurjuicr, Prince 
William, or Loudoun. Tiiere shall be established one other 
college on the south side of James River, to be denominated 
Jefferson College; such college to be established on the same 
terms vv^ith those before mentioned. In determining on the 
position of any of the said colleges, the board sliall take into 
consideration, along v/ith a due regard to the health, plenty, 
and economy or cheapness of living of tlie country in which 
such college is proposed to be established, the sums of money, 
tracts or parcels of land, or other property in possession or 
reversion, which any individual or individuals, body politic or 
corporate, may actually subscribe in favor of any particular 
scite therefor: and no place shall be selected by the board 
for any such purpose until a lot of twenty -five acres of ground 
shall have been offered, and the sum of thirty thousand dollars 
shall have been subscribed for the purpose of erecting a college 
thereupon; and the sum of live thousand dollars, for the pur- 
chase of a library and apparatus, for tlie endowment of such 
college, when the edifices thereof shall have been erected. 

Jhid he it Jurtfier enacted, That, so soon as the board of 
public instruction shall have agreed upon a proper scite for 
any one of the colleges aforesaid, they shall design proper 
plans for the structure thereof, and they shall appoint twenty - 
five trustees of such college, who shall, at their first meeting, 
jBlect a president and vice-president from their own body, and 



46 SYSTEM OF rUBLIC EDUCATION. 

thereafter be styled, " The president and trustees of the coU 
lege of Pendleton, Wythe, or Henrj," (as the case may be) in 
which name they shall have a common seal and perpetual suc- 
cession ; shall be capable of suing and being sued, pleading 
and bein<^ impleaded, and shall have and enjoy all the rights 
and privileges of a corporation. A majority of the said trus- 
tees shall constitute a board for the transaction of business, 
and shall have every power, in relation to their own proceed- 
ings; to the erection of public edifices of their respective col- 
leges ; the appointment and removal of their professors and 
teachers; and the instruction and discipline of the students 
of such college, as the trustees of the several academies afore- 
said are empowered to exercise in relation to their respective 
academies ; and to make such rules and regulations, relative to 
all or any of these subjects, as may seem to them expedient : 
Provided, they are not inconsistent with the constitution and 
laws of this state or of the United States, nor with such gen- 
eral regulations as the board of public instruction may provide 
for the general government of the several colleges of this com- 
monwealth. 

And be it further enacted, That, as soon as the president and 
flirectors of the literary fund shall have received a legal con- 
veyance of the tract or parcel of land, on which the said col- 
lege is about to be erected, they shall have authority, and are 
required lo subscribe, towards the erection of the necessary 
buildings thereupon, a sum equivalent to one fourth of that 
otherwise subscribed as aforesaid, to be paid out of such part 
of the revenue of the literary fund, as shall remain after pro- 
viding for the primary schools and academies aforesaid; upon 
condition that, of the sum so subscribed, the said president and 
directors shall pay no greater proportion, at any time, than 
shall have been actually paid by the other subscribers (hereto, 
of the whole sum by them subscribed in money. All sums 
called for, in virtue of any such subscription, shall be paid to 
the order of the board of trustees of any such college, sub- 
scribed by the president of tlie board in behalf thereof. 

Jlnd he it further enacted, That, at the like periods, and 
upon the like evidence with those provided by the section of 
this act for the salaries of the professors or teachers of any 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 47 

academy, the president and directors of the literar}' fund sliaU 
pay, out of the unappropriated revenue of the fund, one fiftli 
part of the salaries of the professors and teachers of such 
college. 

And be it further enacted, That, in like manner and under 
like provisions in all respects, the other colleges provided fov 
by this act shall be established. 

And be it farther enacted. That the board of public instruc- 
tion shall have authority to receive from the trustees or visi- 
tors of the existing colleges of William and Mary, Hampden 
Sidney, and Washington, any proposals which they may deem 
it proper to submit to the board, for the purpose of having their 
respective institutions embraced within the system of public 
education, to be created by this act : And in the event of such 
agreement being made between the trustees or visitors of any 
one, or all, of the said colleges and the board of public instruc- 
tion, the former shall be entitled to the same provision for 
their respective professors and teachers, which this act assures 
to the professors and teachers of the colleges to be created in 
pursuance thereof. 

The board of public instruction shall, as soon as practicable, 
fix upon a proper scite for the universiiy of Virginia : in deter- 
mining which, the board shall take into consideration, along 
with all those circumstances which appertain to the location 
of the several colleges aforesaid, the relation of the university 
to the geographical centre of the commonwealth, and to the 
principal channels of intercourse through its territory ; and 
having reference, in choosing a position, to the terms which any 
individual, or association of individuals, body politic or corpo- 
rate, may offer to them as an inducement to prefer aiiy parti- 
cular point: Provided, that the lot of ground, on v/liich the 
public edifices of the university may be erecied, shall not be 
less in extent than fifty acres. The board of public works 
shall design all the plans of the various edifices which may be 
erected thereupon, and contract for the building thereof; but 
no part thereof sliaU be begun until the lot aforesaid shall have 
been legally conveyed to the president and directors of the 
literary fund, nor 'intil one hundred tho'isand dollars shall 
have been subscribed to defray the expeusQ of the said build- 



48 SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, 

jngs, and ten thousand dollars for the purchase of a library 
and philosophical apparatus for the said university. Such sub- 
scriptions maj be of lands, stock or other property held in pos- 
session, reversion or remainder; and shall be, with all other 
subscriptions provided for by this act, made transferable or 
payable to the president and directors of the literary fund, 
for such use as the subscribers shall severally make known at 
the time of subscribing. 

Jlnd be it further enacted, That, to develope the resources 
of the commonwealth for the several objects provided for by 
this act, the county and corporation courts within the same 
are authorised and required to appoint, at their next March 
term, three or more commissioners, from among the most in- 
dustrious and patriotic citizens within their respective coun- 
ties and corporations, to make personal application to all the 
inhabitants thereof, for subscriptions, towards the establishment 
of tlie primary schools, academies, colleges and university, 
proposetl to be created under this act. The commissioners 
shall return the original subscription lists to their respective 
county or corporation courts, and a certified copy thereof to 
the president and directors of the literary fund, who shall 
cause their secretary to make proper abstracts therefrom, 
shewing the amount subscribed to each of the objects aforesaid, 
and the names of the several subscribers, and the sums res- 
pectively subscribed by them ; a copy of which abstracts, he 
shall transmit to the board of public instruction, for the infor- 
mation thereof. In the minutes of the proceedings of the board 
of public instruction, and of the trustees of the several colle- 
ges, academies, and primary schools, the names of the sub- 
scribers to the foundation thereof shall be carefully inscribed, 
with the sums subscribed by each, opposite thereto, as a per- 
petual memorial of the persons who shall have contributed to 
promote the diiJ'usion of knowledge throughout the common- 
wealth. 

^nd he it farther enacted, That the trustees of all the pri- 
mary schools, academies, and colleges, shall, annually, by the 
fu'st day of August of each year, report to the board of public 
instruction the actual condition of their respective schools, 
academies and c^illeges. In these reports the name of the 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 49 

school derived from the township or ward ; of the academy, 
with the nimiher of the academical district in which it is sit- 
uated ; and of the college, shall be denoted; also the number 
and denomination of the teachers or professors ; the number 
and ages of the pupils or students in such school, academy or 
college; the extent of the library, if any, attached thereto; 
the cost or value and state of repair of the several edifices de- 
voted to literature: and such other general remarks as may 
serve to shew the progress or declension of the several primary 
schools, academies and colleges. 

Out of these reports, the board of public instruction shall 
annually compile, and submit to the General Assemhly at, or 
near the commencement of their annual session, a view of the 
state of public education within the commonwealth, embracing 
a history of the progress, or declension, of the university of 
Virginia in the year next preceding, and illustrating its actual 
condition and future prospects. 

Jind be it further enacted, That the president and directors 
of the literary fund shall continue, as heretofore, under the 
protection of the General Assembly, the depository and guar- 
dian of that fund; and to them all conveyances shall be made 
of property presented to or purchased for the use of the lite- 
rary fund. 

Jind be it further enacted, That all acts and parts of acts, 
coming within the purview of this act, shall be, and the same 
are hereby repealed. 

This act shall commence and be in force from and after the 
passing thereof, except so much thereof as prescribes tlie ex- 
penditure of any portion of the revenue of the literary fund, 
in the endowment of primary schools, academies and colleges, 
and the university, which shall commence and he in force from 
and after the first day of January next. 

%imendments offered to the foregoing' bill in the Senate^ and 
agreed to by that body. 
1. At the end of the second section add the following;- " All 
the powers hereby vested in the said board of public instruction 
shall be at all times subject to the control of the general as- 
sembly." 

7 • 



50 S^'STEM OP PUBLIC EDLCATfON, 

3. 7th page — 7tU line from the bottom — Before the word 
Pendleton, insert " Ji^fterson."* 

3. Strike out the coaimencing clause, and in lieu thereof in- 
sert the foHovving: "And whereas tiie present legi-^lature are 
not satisfied that tiie p!an of education provided for in tills bill 
is the best suited to the present condition of our counlrv- or 
ought finally to be adopted by them; and, upon a subject so 
deeply interesting to the public, are desir(tus to act with j^reat 
caution, and to cbiain t'le best inforsnation in thiir power: 

Be it therefore enacfed. That it shall be the duty of the 
board of public insuuction to report to the next general assp'.n- 
bly any alterations, or amendments of this law, which they 
may deem expedient? or any other plan of education which 
they may think preferable; and therewith to report all their 
proceedings under this act. 

Be it further enacted, Tliat no expenditure of any part of 
the literary fund, except so much as may be necessary to de- 
fray the expenses of the sitting of the board of public instruc- 
tion, shall be made or authorised by them before the end of ttie 
next session of the General Assembly, at which time the whole 
of this act shall expire, unless, in the mean lime, it shall be 
continued in force, by a concurrent vote of both Oranches of 
the legislature." 

4. At the end of the last amendment of the Senate, add, 
«' And whereas, it may be important, as well to the board of 
public instruction as to the General Assembly, to ascertain 
the present state of education among the good people of the 
commonwealth, and the aiuiual expense attending the samej 

Be it iherefoi-e enacted. That each commissioner of the reve- 
nue shall, in the course oi the easui.ig spring, make a list of 
the number of schools, academies or colleges, in his county, or 
district, as the case may be, specifying in such list the number 
of teachers and of pupils; the salaries of such teachers, and 
the price for tuition in eacii of the said schools^ academies and. 
colleges respectively. 

* Tliis amendment refers to the 7th line of the 7th page of tke 
Manuscript, sent from the House of Dtle^ates to the i^enate. 



SYSTFM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 51 

^}id be it enacted. That each of ihe said commissioners shall 
foe, and he is hereby authorised and require<l to demand writ- 
ten information as to the matters aforesaid from the prinr-ipal 
teac'aer or teachers in each of the said schools, academies or 
colleges, in his county or district, as the case may he. 

And he it further enacted, That it shall he the duty of each 
of the said coiamissioners, to transmit one copy of the afore- 
said list to the board of public instruction on or before the first 
of August, and another copy to the governor and council on 
or before the first day of December next ^' 

An amendment to the fore^nins: BilK !;7!,s;gesfed in the Senate, 
and filed ici h their Clek. 
Be it enacted by the General Assembly, Fhat, for the purpose 
of duly applying the annual income of the liteiary fund to the 
primary objects of its institution, it shall be tlie duty of the 
couits of the several cnunties, cities, and corporate towns, 
and of the borough of Norf >ik. as soon as may be, in the pres- 
ent }ear, and annually thereafter, at the time of laying the 
county levy in the several counties, and in the months of Mav, 
June, or .lulv. in the courts of the cities, corporate towns, and 
borough of Norfulk, to appoint not less than five, nor more 
th;H^ ten, discreet persons within their counties, cities, corpo- 
rate towns an<l horougli of Norfolk respectively, to be called 
the commissioners of the literary fund for the counties cities, 
corporate towns ajul borough of Norfolk respectively, in which 
thev may be appointed, and who shall continue in office until 
thtir successors shall be appointed. The said commissioners 
shall appoint one of their own body as treasurer, who shall, 
before he shall be entitled to seceive any money by virtue of 
his office, give bond and good security in the court of the county, 
citv, corporate town or horouji. in which he mav be appointed, 
payable to the president and directors of the literary fund, in 
the penalty of one thousand dollars, conditioned for the faith- 
ful application, and accountino- forall monies which may come 
to his hands by virtue of his office. The said treasurer shall 
pay all monies which may come to his hands in virtae of his 
office, by order of the said commissioners, and not otherwise, 
and shall auuually sender an account of his receipts and di^- 



52 SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

bursements, supported by proper vouchers, to the court by 
which he was appointed; and the said court shall examine 
the same, and alter correcting all errors wliich may be found 
therein, shall order the same to be recorded, and the clerk 
shall certify a copy of such account to the president and di- 
rectors of the literary fund, which account shall annually be 
returned and adjusted in the months of May, June, or July, 
and whenever such treasurer shall go out of office, he shall 
pay over any balance which may be in his hands to his succes- 
sor in office. 

.find be it enacted^ That the president and directors of the 
literary fund shall annually pay to each of the said treasurers, 
or his order, upon the production of a certificate, from the prop- 
er clerk, that he has given the bond required by this act. such 
proportion of the income of the literary fund as the free white 
population of the county, city, corporate town, or borough, in 
which such treasurers may respectively have been appointed, 
bears to the whole free white population of the commonwealth, 
according to the last census taken under the authority of the 
United States. 

^nd be it enacted. That the said commissioners, in their 
counties, cities, corpiu-ate towns, and boroughs, shall hold their 
meetings at their respective court-houses, and adjourn from 
time to time, as they shall think proper. And it shall be their 
duty to select as many poor children as can be educated, by 
the fund under their control, from time to time, and (with the 
assent of the father, or, if no father, of the mother of such 
children respectively,) send them to such school as may be 
convenient, to be taught reading, writing and arithmetic, and 
pay the expenses of tuition, and of furnishing such children 
with proper books and materials for writing and cyphering, by 
orders upon their treasurer, from time to time, as may be ne- 
cessary. 

The foregoing are true copies of the bill and amendments 
thereto offered and suggested in the Senate, which are referred 
to in a resolution agreed to by both houses of the General As- 
sembly, on the 22d of February, 1817, and are filed in my 
office. 

THEO. HANSFORD, C, S. 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 53 

.4 BILL for amending the constitution of TV lliam and Mary, 
and substituting more certain revenues for its support ; pro- 
posed by the commUtee of revisers of 'he laws of Virginia^ 
appointed by the General Assembly in the year 1776. 
Section 1. WFIEREAS, a scheme for cultivating and dis- 
seminating useful knowledge in this country, which had been 
proposed by some of its liberal minded inhabitants, before the 
3'^ear 1690 of the Christian epocha, was approved, adopted, and 
cherished, by the General Assembly, upon whose petition King 
"William and Queen Maiy of England, to the crown whereof 
the people here at that time acknowledged themselves, as a 
colony, to be subject, by their charter, bearing date the seventli 
day of February, in the fourth year of their reign, gave license, 
in due form, to Francis Nicholson, Esq. lieutenant governor of 
the colony, and seveateen other trustees, particularly named, 
to found a place of universal study, or perpetual college, in 
such part of the country as the general assembly should think 
fit, consisting of a president, six professors, and an hundred 
scholars, more or less; enabled the trustees, and their survi- 
vors, to take and hold lands, tenements, and hereditaments, 
to the yearly value of two thousand pounds, with intention, 
and in confidence, that, after application of the profits thereof, 
with such donations as by themselves and others might be 
made for that purpose, to the erecting, founding, and adorning 
tbe college, they should transfer the same to the president and 
professors; appointed James Blair, clerk, the first president; 
and empowered the trustees, and their successors, to elect the 
succeeding presidents and the professors ; willed the college, 
after it should be founded, to be called the College of William 
and Mary in Virginia ; and incorporated the president and 
masters, enabling them and their successors to take and hold 
lands, tenements, hereditaments, goods and chattels, to the 
yearly value of two thousand pounds, of lawful money of 
England ; appointed the trustees and their successors, to be 
elected in the manner therein prescribed, so as not to be less 
than eighteen, visitors of the college, with power to nominate 
one of themselves a rector annually, and to ordain statutes 
for the government of the college, not contrary to the royal 
prerogative, the laws of England or Virginia, or the canons 



54 SYSTEM OF PFRTJC EDUCATION. 

of die church of England ; willed that the president and pro- 
fessors should have a chancellor, to be nominated, every sev- 
enth year, in the manner therein prescribed ; j^ranted to the 
trustees a sum of money, then in the hands of William Byrd, 
Esq. the auditor, received for quitrents, to be applied towards 
erecting, foundina;, and adorning the college ; and also granted 
to tiie trustees, to be transferred to the president and profes- 
sors, in like manner as before directed, part of the then royal 
revenue, arising from the duty upon tobacco exported; and. 
also granted to the said trustees the ofiice of surveyor general 
of Virginia, with intention, and in confidence, that they and 
their successors, or the longest livers of them, should receive 
the profits thereof, until the foundation of the college; and when 
that should be effected, account for and pay the same or the 
surplus, above what should have been expended in that work, 
to the president and professors ; and that thereafter the said 
office should be held bv t!ie said president and professors. 
And the said King and Queen, by their said charter, granted 
to the said trustees ten thousand acres of land on the south 
side of the Blackvvater swamp, and also other ten thousand 
acres of land in Pamunkey neck, between the forks or branches 
of York river, with this intention, aid in confidence, that the 
said trustees, or the longest livers of them, should transfer the 
said twenty thousand acres of land, after the foundation of the 
college, to the president and professors; as by the said charter, 
among other things, relation being thereunto had, may more 
fully appear. And whereas, voluntary contributions towards 
forwarding this beneficial scheme, the sum whereof exceeded 
two thousand pounds sterling, were received by the said trus- 
tees, with one thousand pounds sterling out of the money 
arising from the quitrents granted to the use of the said col- 
le"-e by Qaeen Aniie, part whereof was applied to the purchase 
of three hundred and thirty acres of land at the middle planta- 
tion, being the same place at which the general assembly, by their 
act passed in the year 1693, had directed the s;ad college to be 
built, and whereon the same was accordingly built; and the gene- 
ral assembly, by one other act passed in theyear 1693, entitled an 
act for laving an imposition upon skins and furs, for the better 
support of the college of William and Mary in Virginia, endowed 



SYSTEM OF rUBLIC EDUCATION, 55 

the said collesje with certain duties on skins and furs therein 
specified, whicli duties were afterwards enlarged and confirm- 
ed to the use of the said C(»lle2;e, and made payable to the. 
president and professors hy divers other acts of the general 
assemhiy. And by one other act passed in tlie year 1718, the 
said college was further endowed \iy the 8;eneral assembly vvitb 
the sum of one thousand pounds, out of the public funds, in 
the hands of the treasurer, which was directed to be laid out 
for the maintaining and educating scholars, and to be account- 
ed for to the general assembly, from time to time, when re- 
quired : which sum was accordingly paid to the said visitors, 
and by them invested in the purchase of two thousand one hun- 
dred and nineteen acres of land, on both sides of Nottoway 
river, in the counties of Prince George, Surry, and Brunswick, 
and seventeen negro slaves, to be employed in tilling and n^a- 
nuring the same; and certain scholarships were accordingly 
established on the said funds; and the general assembly, by 
tlieir act, passed in the year 1726, and entitled an act for lay- 
ing a duty on liquors, furtlier endowed the said college with aa 
annual revenue of two hundred pounds for twenty one years, 
to be paid out of certain duties thereon imposed on liquors; 
and by one other act, passed in the year 1734. endowed it with 
the whole of the said duties, during the residue of the said 
term then unexpired, a part or the whole thereof to be expend- 
ed in purchasing a lihrary for the said college : And by divers 
other acts, passed at subsequent times, the assemblies, for tlie 
times being, having continued to the said college the whole of 
the annual revenues, arising from the said duties, until the first 
of June, which shall be in the year 1780, to be applied to the 
funding scholarships, and other good uses, for the support of 
the said college, and to be accounted for to the general assem- 
bly; and the said general assembly by of ia 
the vear gave a further donation to the said college, of 
to be laid out in purchasing a mathematical apparatus 
for the said college, which was accordingly purchased. And 
• the said trustees, in pursuance of the trust reposed in them, 
proceeded to erect the said college, and established one school 
of sacred theology, with two professorships therein, to tvify one 
for teaciiing the Hebrew tongue, and expounding the holy scrip- 



56 SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

tares; and the other for explaining the common places of di- 
vinity, and the controversies with heretics; one other school 
for philosophy, with two professorships therein, to wl!:, one for 
the siudy of rhetoric, logic, and ethics, and the other of phy- 
sics, metaphysics, and mathematics; one other school for 
teaching the Latin and Greek tongues; and one other for 
teaching Indian boys reading, writing, vulgar arithmetic, the 
catechism and the principles of the christian religion; which 
last school was founded on the private donation of the honora- 
ble Robert Boyle, of the kingdom of England, and. by autho- 
rity from his executors, submitted to the direction of the Earl 
of Burlington, one of the said executors of the bishop of Lon- 
don, for the time being and in default thereof, to the said trus- 
tees; and over the whole they appointed one president as su- 
pervisor: 

Sect. 2. And. whereas the experience of near an hundred 
years hath proved, that the said college, thus amply endowed 
by the public, hath not answered their expectations, and there 
is reason to hope, that it would become more useful, if certain 
articles in its constitution were altered and amended, which 
being fixed, as before recited, by the original charter, cannot 
be reformed by the said trustees, whose powers are created and 
circumscribed by the said charter; and the said college being 
erected and constituted on the requisition of the general assem- 
bly, by the chief magistrate of the state their legal fiduciary 
for such purposes, being founded and endowed with the lands 
and revenues of the public, and intended for the sole use and 
improvement, and no wise in nature of a private grant, the 
same is of right subject to the public direction, and may by 
them be altered and amended, until such form be devised as 
will render the institution publicly advantageous, in proportion 
as it is publicly expensive; and the late change in the form of 
our government, as well as the contest of arms in which we 
are at present engaged, calling for extraordinary abilities both 
in council and field, it becomes the peculiar duty of the legisla- 
ture, at this time, to aid and improve that seminary, in whiciii 
those who are to be the future guardians of the rights and li- 
berties of their country may be endowed with science and vir- 
tue, to watch and preserve the sacred deposit : Be it therefore 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, 57 

enacted bi/ the. General Jlssembly, That, instead of eighteen 
visitors, or governors of the said college, there shall in future 
be five only, who shall be appointed by joint ballot of both 
houses of assembly, annually, to enter on the dutie^ of their 
office on the new year's day ensuing their appointment, ha\in^ 
previously given assurance ( f fidelity to the cominonweahh, 
before any justice of the peace; and to continue in oflico 
until those next appointed shall be qualified; but those who 
shall be first appointed, after the passing of this act. and all 
others appointed during the course of any year to fill up va- 
cancies happening by death, resignation, or removal out of the 
commonwealth, shall enter on duty immediately on such ap- 
pointment. Any four of the said visitors may proceed to busi- 
ness; they shall choose their own rector, at their first meeting, 
in every year, and shall be deemed the lawful successors of 
the first trustees, and invested with all the rights, powers, and 
capacities given to them, save only so far as the same shall he 
abridged by tiiis act; nor shall they be restrained in their le- 
gislation, by the royal prerogative, or the laws of the kingdom 
of England, or the canons or constitution of the English 
church, as enjoined in the said charter. There shall be threo 
chancellors, in like manner appointed by joint ballot of both 
houses, from among the judges of the high court of chancery, 
or of the general court, to enter on their office immediately 
on such appointment, and to continue therein so long as they 
may remain in either of the said courts ; any two of whom 
may proceed to business : to them shall belong solely the power 
of removing the professors, for breach or neglect of duty, im- 
morality, severity, contumacy, or other good cause, and the 
judiciary powers in all disputes, v/hich shall arise on the stat- 
utes of the college, being called on for that purpose by the 
vector, or by the corporation of president and professors : a 
copy of their sentence of deprivation being delivered to the 
sheriff of the county wherein the college is, he shall forthwitli 
cause the professor deprived to be ousted of his chambers and 
other freehold appertaining to the said college, and the remain- 
ing professors tobc re-scizedthereof, in like manner and form, 
and subject, on failure, to the like fines by the said chancellors, 
as in cases of writs of habere facias seisinam issued from 



5S SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

courts of record. But no person shall be capable of being' 
both visitor and chancellor at the sa;ne time ; nor shall any 
professor be capable of being at the same titr.c either visiter 
or chancellor. Instead of the president and six professors. 
licensed by the said charter, and establislied by the former vi- 
sitors, there shall be eight professors, one of whom shall also 
be appointed president, with an additional salary of one hun- 
dred pounds a year ; before they enter on the execution of their 
ofnce, they shall give assurajice of fidelity to tlie common- 
wealth, before some justice of <he peace. — These sliali he 
deemed the lawful successors of the president and professors 
appointed under the said charter, and shall have all their 
rights, powers and capacities, not otherwise disposed of by this 
act; to them shall belong the ordinary government of the col- 
lege, and administration of its revenues, taking the advice of 
the visitors on all matters of great concern. There shall, in 
like manner, be eight professorr.hips ; to tvit, one of morsl 
philosophy, the laws of nature and cf nations, and of the fine 
arts; one of law and police; one of history, civil and eccle- 
siastical ; one of mathematics; one of anatomy and medicine; 
one of natural philosophy and natural history; one oi" the an- 
cient languages, oriental and northern; and one of modern 
languages. The said professors shall likewise appoint, from 
time to time, a missionary, of approved veracity, to the several 
tribes of Indians, whose business shall be to investigate their 
laws, customs, religions, traditions, and more particularly their 
languages, constructing grammars thereof, as well as may be, 
and copious vocabularies, and, on oath, to communicate, from 
time to time, to the said president and professors, the mate- 
rials he collects, to be by tliera laid up and preserved in their 
library ; for wiiich trouble the said missionary shall be allovv-ed 
a salary, at the discretion of the visitors, out of the revenues 
of the college. And forasmuch as the revenue, arising from 
the duties on skins and furs, and those on liquors, with which 
the said college was endowed, by several acts of the general 
assembly, is subject to great fluctuations, from circumstances 
unforeseen, instimiich that no calculation or foresight can ena- 
ble the said visitors or professors to square thereto the expeii- 
(litures of the said college, which being regular and permanent 



SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION. 09 

:9hould depend on stable funds : Be it therefore enacted, '^hat 
the revenue arising froai the said duties shall be henceforth 
transferred to the use of tlie public, to be applied towards 
supporting the contiajent charges of government ; and that, 
in lieu thereof, the said college shall be endowed with an im- 
post of five pounds of tobacco, on every hogshead of tobacco 
to be exported from this commonwealth, hj hind, or bv water, 
to be paid to the inspectors, if such tobacco be carried to an}'' 
public ware-house, hy t!ie person receiving the said tobacco 
iVora them, and by tlie said inspectors accounted for, on oath, 
to the said president and j-.rofessors, on or before tb.e 10th day 
of October, in every year, with an allowance of six per centum 
for their trouble ; and if tlie said tobacco be not carried to any 
public ware-house, then the said impost sliaU be paid, collected, 
and accouiited for to the said president and professors, by the 
same persons, at the same limes, in and under the like manner, 
penalties and conditions, as prescribed by the laws, which shall 
be in force at the time, for collecting the duties imposed on 
exported tobacco, towards raising supplies of money for the 
public exigencies. — And that this commonwealth may not be 
without so great an ornament, nor its youth such an help to- 
wards attaining astronomical science, as the mechanical repre- 
sentation, or model of the solar system, conceived and executed 
by that gresitest of astronomers, David Ryttenhouse : Be it 
further enacted, That the visitors, first appointed under this 
act, and their successors, shall be authorised to engage the 
said David Ryttenhouse, on the part of this commonwealth, to 
make and erect in the said college of Wdliam and Mary, and 
for its use, one of the said models, to be called by the name 
of the Ilyttenhoiise : the cost and expense of making, trans- 
porting and erecting whereof shall, according to the agreement 
or allowance of the said visitors, be paid by the treasurer of 
this commonwealth, on warrant from the auditors. 

APPENDIX. 

Ky.sf.—ETMICS...,Moral Philosophy. Law of Nature. Law 
of Nations.^— FINE ARTS.. ..Sculpture. Painting Gar* 
dening. Music. Arc'nitccture. Poetry. Oratory. Criticism. 



GO SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION, 

Second — LAW — Municipal... .Common Law. Equity. Law 
Merchant. Law Maritime. Law Ecclesiastical.— ^^-Econo- 
HicAL.... Politics. Commerce. 

TAfrrf.- HISTORY....Civil. Ecclesiastical. 

i'Mir^A.— MATHEMATICS— Pure.... Arithmetic. Geome- 
try. — -" — Mixed.... Mechanics. Optics. Acoustics. Astronomy- 

Fifth. — Anatomy. Medicine. 

*S'«.r//t.--NATUUAL PHILOSOPHY... Chymii-try. Statics. 
Hydrostatics. Pneumatics. Agriculture.—"- — NATURAL 
HISTORY.... A.nimals — Zoology. A'^egetables — Botany. Miner- 
als — Mineralogy. 

Seventh.— Ai^Cm^T LANGUAGES. — Oriental.. ..He- 
brew. Chaldee. Syriac. — •— Northern.. ..Moeso-Gothic. 
Anglo S,ixon. Old Icelandic. 

£/^/i«/i.— MODERN LANGUAGES...French. Italian. Ger- 
man. 

Missionary for Indian History, &c. 



CmCULJlR LETTER from His Excellency Wilson C. M- 
cholas, Gove ■ nor of Virginia, to sundry gentlemen, on the 
subject of a system of public education for the slate of Vir- 
ginia. 

IlicHMoND, May 30, 1816. 
SIR, 

By a resolution of the General Assembly of 
Virginia, t!ie President and Directors of the Literary Fund are 
requested to digest and report a s_^stem of public education, 
calculated to give effect to the appropriations made to that ob- 
ject by the legislature, and to coii.prehend in such system the 
establishment of one university, and such additional colleges, 
academies and schools, as shall diffuse the benefits of educa- 
tion throughout the commonwealth, and such rules for the gov- 
ernment of such university, colleges, academies and schools, 
as shall produce economy in the expenditures for the establish- 
ment and maintenance, and good order atid discipline in the 
management thereof. As President of the Board, the duty 
devolves on mc to eoilect from every source the information 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 61 

necessary for this important object. The great cause of liter- 
ature and science is not local in its nature, lout is an object of 
interest to the whole liuman species. The commonwealth of 
letters embraces every region however remote. It cannot fail 
to excite pleasing emotions in every enlia;htene(l American, to 
perceive that Virginia has taken this subject under its patron- 
age, and devoted a fund to its accomplishment, which is an- 
nually increasing. To you, Sir. l think it proper to address 
myself, knowing your attachment to literature, and feeling 
great confidence that jou will not consider your valuable time 
mis-spent in communicating any ideas which may promote so 
useful an object. I can assure you they will be received witli 
that high sense of obligation which their importance must in- 
spire. 

I have the honor to be, 

"SVith great respect. Sir, 
Your humble servant, 

WILSON GARY NICHOLAS. 



AJ^SWEH of James Monroe, Esq. Secretary of Stats of the 
United States, to the foregoing letter. 

Washington, Nov. 17, 1816. 

Dear Sir, 

I have had the honour to receive your letter of 
October 18th, informing me that I had been appointed one of 
the visitors of the Central College in Albemarle. I had before 
received a letter from you, stating, that the president and di- 
rectors of the literary fund, were authorised, by a resolution of 
the general assembly, to digest a system of education, consist- 
ing of one university, and such additional institutions, as would 
diffuse the benefits of education throughout the commonwealth, 
with such rules for their government, as to ensure economy, 
good order, and discipline, and requesting such aid as I might 
be able to afford, iu so highly important and useful an under- 
taking. 

Believing as I have always done, that the preservation of 
f>ur political institutions will depend; in an eminent degree, 



62 SYSTEM OF puny.ic edt5 cation. 

on the aKility of the people to perform Ihe all important du- 
ties belono-ing to them, in their character of electors ; in whicli 
chanscter. their rif^ht of sovereignty is particularly exercised; 
it has been my ardent wish to sec such measures adopted, and 
facilitie'^ afforded for their instruction, generally, as. guarding 
against degeneracy, niioht secure their competency to the per- 
formance of those duties at all times hereafter. It was there- 
fore, with peculiar satisfaction, that I saw that the general 
assemhly had taken up the suhject, and adopted such mea- 
sures as promised complete success. 

]Cnowin£-, that there are many of our fellow citizens, who 
are much better qualified to give the aid. which the president 
and directors of the literary fund have obliiringly asked, than 
I can pretend to be, it would be with difTidence that I sl)0uld 
venture to say any thing on the subject. I had, nevertheless, 
on the receipt of your first letter, intended, in my zeal for the 
success of tiie cause, to communicate respectfully sucli obser- 
vations, as my limited researches and experience might enable 
me to make. It is with regret, that I have been deprived of 
the opportunity of executing this task, by the pressure of olR- 
clal duties, which have been important and urgent. It is of 
late only that I have relinquished the hope of executing it m 
due time. 

The appointment to a place in the visitation of the Central 
College in Albemarle, I accept with pleasure 5 and will be 
careful to pay all the attention to its duties in my power. - 
I have the honor to be, 
With great respect, 

Your very obedient servant, 

JAMES MONROE. 



JIJ^SWER of Thnmas Cooper, professor of Chyr.vistry in Car- 
lisle College, Pemisijlvania, to the same letter. 

Carlisle, August 1, 1816. 
SIR,_1 received your circular letter relating to the pro. 
posed seminaries of education in your state. Confinement, by 
a fall from a carnage, prevented my attending to it earlier. 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC "BDlTCATION. 63 

1 know not what institutions of this kind jou have already ; 
I must, therefore, consider the subject as though there were 
none. 

Schools for the teachin<>; of reading, writing, arithmetic, and 
the use of maps, ought to be in every parish or township, for 
the benefit of those who are intended for laborious occupa- 
tions; and, where the children cannot stay longer than twelve 
or fourteen years of age. 

^academies for the teaching of the classics, and the elements 
of mathematics and aigebra; and as preparatory to an univer- 
sity education, ought also to be encouraged.— These ought to 
be as numerous as may be consistent with furnishing a decent 
income to the tutors, by the resort of scholars. I am not ac- 
quainfed with the local circum-»lances or wants of your state; 
and, therefore, whether one such academy would suffice, on an 
average, for one. two or three counties, I am not able to judge. 

Universities should be, exclusively, for a liberal and finished 
education. I doubt whether it be expedient to have raore than 
one in the state, under state patronage. Such an university 
should, in my opinion, be instituted on a plan not much dis- 
similar to the following : 

1st. It should be considered, held up, and taken for granted, 
tliat no young man can receive a finished education sufficient 
to enable him to commence the pursuit of any of the liberal 
professions, unless he has remained at the university till the 
completion of his nineteenth year: if young men could be 
induced to stay for half a year longer, it v/ould be a very im- 
portant acquisition, privately and publicly. They usually 
graduate so young, that tiiey enter upon life conceited scio- 
lists. 

2dly. It should be scrupulously insisted on, that no youth 
can be admitted to the university, unless he can read with fa- 
cility Virgil, Horace, Xenophon, and Homer — unless he is 
able, as a preliminary to matriculation, to convert a page of 
English at sight into latin — unless he can demonstrate any 
proposition, at sight, in the six first books of Euclid ; and shews 
an acquaintance with cubic and quadratic equations. — With- 
out this, your university v/dl become, what all the American 
colleges and universities ai'c, so far as I know tl'.em, mere 



64< SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

grammar schools. You will have fewer sturlents, but thej 
will do credit to ihe institution, and raise its reputation; antl 
entrance at such an university will he sought as an honor. 

Sdly. It cannot be required, but it should be regularly and 
publicly expected, that the university course of education 
should occupy four years. The more difficult Latin and 
Greek classics should be read at the university. Euripides, 
Sophocles, Linginus, Demosthenes, Sec. tA'o week should pass 
without at least three pajes of composition in Latin prose, 
and one in verse, upon given subjects. All the prominent po- 
litical men — all the learned men — all the scientific men of my 
day, have entered upon active life as good classic scholars 
and good mathematicians: judging from times past before I 
began life, and from what I have seen and observed myself, I 
am satisfied thai a young man tarned into the world a good 
classic and ma.hematician, is far better qualified for any other 
literary pursuit, than those who have been educated in any 
other way. On this score, my mind is fully made up. 

Attendant on these classical studies, should be the higher 
parts of the mathematics, conic sections, fluxions, spherical 
trigonometry, &c. Also tl»e study of the French languagej^, 
with drawing, fencing, and the manual exercise. 

These should chiefly occupy the two first years. I say 
chiefly, because perhaps logic, and a course of moral and poli- 
tical philosophy might be introduced the second year : thoug'i 
I should not incline to begin them till the third. 

The two next years might he occupied (never entirely omit- 
tiua: classical and mathematical studies) with 

The elements of moral and political philosophy and juris- 
prudence. 

Lectures on natural piiilosophy — Chemistry — Botany and. 
Zoology. 

Perhaps room might also be found for a short course of 
Anatomy. 

Further than this it is needless to go. It will suffice to give 
them of these, enough to shew the roads that lead to the ac- 
quirement of knowledge. The basis of the system being clas- 
sical and mathematical knowledge. \ should not fear for a 
young man who was well grounded in these alone, at his first 



SYSTELI OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. ^ff 

starting on the race of life, but much more may be added by 
a judicious plan of study. 

Should these ideas prove in any way useful, it vill much 
gratify, 

Sir, 

Your obedient servant, 

THOMAS COOPER, 



AJS^STVER ofJ.Jivg: Smith, President of William amlManJ 
College, to the same letter. 

Wm. & Mauv College, rth Nov. 181G, 
SIR, 

Althoiigh I liave not failed to bestow t'lat reflec- 
tion on the subject of your circular letter, which its importance 
demanded, yet, I fear it m ill not be in my power to communi- 
cate any thing very novel or ver}^ useful. Nothing is easier, 
than to enumerate the various branches of learning which a 
general system of instruction should comprehend ; and as to 
the manner in which these should be taught, there is probably 
neither room nor occasion for any great imj>rovement. But the 
object of the directors of the literary fund is, I presume, rath- 
er to inform those who must oth.ervvise remain in total ignor- 
ance, in the Inimbler but more important parts of knowledge, 
than to make a comparatively few proficients in the sublimer 
departments of science.' — In these we have always had a suffi- 
cient number of persons adequately skilled for all purposes of 
practical utility, while the mass of our population is well known 
to be grossly deficient of even the most ordinary attaltunenis 
in literature. If my view of the wishes of tlie directors of the 
literary fund be correct, it necessarily follows, that he alone 
can devise a scheme for the fulfilment of their intentions, who 
is intimately acquainted with tlie particular circumstances of 
those who are to be benefited. But my situation and pursuits 
have always been such as to preclude me from acquiring tiii?5 
minute knowledge of my countrymen ; a few general remarks, 
therefore, evincive rather of my zeal for the cause, than of my 
ubility to protnote it, are all I can ofter. Men, as far as I Iiave 



66 SYSTEM OF TVUhlC EDt! CATION. 

been able to jwd^e, fail in attaining their ends, not so rfinc'j 
from a defect in their plans, as, first, from employing agents 
really incompetent; and. secondly, from neglecting to super- 
intend those upon whom the detads must devolve. In the 
present instance, both of these difficulties are great: the for- 
mer is, at this time, I am sure, insuperable. It may, I think, 
be ultimately overcome ; but, as years will be necessary for 
this purpose, the requisite measures cannot be too early com- 
menced. The first thing therefore which I should recommend, 
would be. the immediate adoption of such steps as would en- 
sure an adequate number of well instructed persons to act 
hereafter as teachers — That these must be, in the first instance, 
educated for this special purpose, and at the expense of the 
public, is to me clear: for certain I am, that proper persons, 
who would accept of such remuneration as could be aftbrded, 
are not to be procured either here or elsewhere. 

An objection of considerable magnitude immediately occurs^ 
how is the public to be assured that those thus educated will 
hereafter act in the capacities for which they were designed, 
A contract might, I should suppose, be framed, under an act 
of the assembly, to be passed with this view, which would 
accomplish this end. But upon this, gentlemen more conver- 
sant with the law than 1 am must decide. 

The want of good teachers would be principally felt at the 
commencement; in a short time the demand would ensure a 
supply. But, while this difficulty was diminishing, the other 
to which I have alluded, would increase. Most establishments 
have, at their beginning, a vigour, wiiich gradually wears out; 
and perpetual motion has. hitherto, been found nearly as im- 
possible in the moral as in the physical world. A vigilant 
svstem of superiiitenuance, therefore, is highly essential. — ■ 
Proper characters for this trust cannot, I know, be found in 
all the counties, and the appointment of itinerant visitors 
would not probably answer. If the number of schools be not 
wreater than one to a county, and if each of these were lo- 
cated at some court house, the judges of the general court 
mi"ht, at their semi- annual circuits, have the scholars examin- 
ed ; recomiuend those who deserve promotion; and, above all,, 
rnakc strict inquiiy iiit.o iW conduct of the teachers. whr> 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 67 

<mght to be immediately discharged for drunkenness, or for 
anj other act of equal depravity. A detailed report should 
be annually made to the directors of the literary fund, or to 
whatever other body the general super intendaiice of education 
is committed ; which reports, condensed into one, should, at 
every session, be laid before tiie legislature. 

Thus, it appears to me, that the execution of whatever plan 
may be adopted, will be as effectually secured as the aature of 
the case will permit. 

It would not be altogether decorous, I conceive, for a person 
in my situation to say any thing upon 'he subject of an univer- 
sity, but always willing to lend every aid in my power, and 
awfully impressed with the necessity of extending the benefits 
«f education, 

I remain, 

Tour's, with great respect, 

J. AUG; SMITH. 



A^YSWER of the Rev. Timothy Dwi^ht, President of Yah 
College^ Connecticut ; to the same letter. 

New Haven, Aug. 16th, 1816. 

May it 2Jiease your Excellency, 

I have lately received a Circular, in which you observe, 
that, by a Resolution of the General Assembly of Virginia^ 
the Prtsident and Directors of the Literary Fund are request- 
ed to digest, and report, a system of public education, calcu» 
lated to give effect to the appropriations, made to that ob- 
ject by the legislature. The system, as I learn from your let- 
ter, is to comprehend a university, and such additional colleges, 
academies, and schools, as shall diffuse the benefits of educa- 
tion throughout the commonwealth. Among the several per- 
sons to whom this information is given, your excellency has 
obligingly placed me; and requested me to communicate any 
ideas, which I may consider as having a tendency to promote 
so useful an object. 

There are two difficulties in the way of returning such an 
answer to this application, as in all probability is expected.-^ 



G8 SVSTEM or PUBLIC EDUCATI02T. 

One is, that the circular <loes not at all explain the specific 
views of the Virginian Legislature. The literary institutions, 
which are mentioned in it, are so extremely different in differ- 
ent countries, as often to have very little resemblance to each 
■other. An University^ in European tangiiage, is, as your Ex- 
cellency perfectly well knows, a seat of education, in which 
students aie conducted through all the branches of academical, 
and professional knowledge; so as to be fitted to enter upon 
the practice of medicine, or to appear at the bar, or in the 
desk, without any additional instruction. A CoVege^ in the 
same language, is sometimes one of the several institutions, 
■which, when combined, constitute the university; and some- 
times a seminary, in which students barely obtain the requi^ 
siite qualifications for admission into the university. Eaton 
College., and the celebrated school of Westminster, are semi- 
naries of this nature. 

In Jlmerican phraseology y your Excellency must have ob- 
served, both these terms are used in a widely different manner, 
Tliere are three seminaries in J^ew England, which are styled 
universities; a fourth in JWnv Fork; a fifth in Pennsylvania ; 
a sixth in Georgia ; and a seventh in Kentucky. All thess 
difter essentially from what is meant by the term in Europe: 
and in none of them is education given to the extent, speci- 
fied above. That of Cambridge in Massachusetts, approxi- 
mates nearer to the European standard than any of the rest:- 
but even that falls materially short. 

There are also in J^ew England five Colleges; and many 
others which bear the same name in different parts of the 
United States. In Yale College there is, probably, more sci' 
ence taught than in any other seminary in the Jhverican union; 
but probably less of Werature tlian in the university at Cam- 
bridge. Yet it is styled a College. Several Jlmerican colle- 
ges pursue nearly the same course of instruction: while oth- 
«na are calculated upon so low a degree of the scale, that ba- 
chelors of arts, comirsg from them to Yale college, have been 
unable to enter at any higher grade than the beginning of the 
second, or Sophomore, year; and that without ar.y defective- 
ness of talents, or diligence. 

After these observations, it will be unnecessary to insist 



SYSTESi OF rUDLEC iiDU( ATION. OU 

any further on the indeterminate meaning of these naniefs, 
or on the impossibility of my knowing the sense, in whicli 
they were used by the Legislature of Virginia, But with- 
out such knowledge it must be obviously irapos?.ible for me to 
i'eel assured that any opinions wiiich I niiglit comrnunicat^^- 
Avonld even reach the subject to which they were intentionally 
directed. 

The other difficulty, to which I have referred, lies in the 
extensive, and complicated natuie of i\\Q subject. Will youi- 
Excellency pardon nie for observing, that, having lived more 
than thirty years in Yale College^ and in every station indud- 
ed in its system, the experience, forced upon me during this 
period, has furnished nie with a complete convicti<tn, that the 
views, formed concerning such an institution by men unac- 
quainted with this subject except by speculation, and those of 
the first talent;?, arc necessarily inadequate and erroneous.— 
If I am not deceived, a consideMMble number of Jimerican 
colleges have failed of success, from defects in their original 
establishment; defects, derived from the want of an experi- 
mental acquaintance with such an inslitution, in tiinse under 
whose direction their several systems began their operations. 

If my experience has not deceived me, such a scheme of a 
College in the American sense, and still more of a Universitu 
in the European sense, as will Hiirly promise extensive utility 
to the public, must involve many important parts; all of them 
r.earlv or absolutely indispensible ; and many more subordi- 
jiate ones, each of which would contribute in a considerable 
degree to the perfection of the whole. To state in the most 
concise manner a scheme of this nature, and the proofs by 
which its expediency might be evinced, would require at least 
a large pamplilet. For such a work 1 have neither time, nor 
health, nor eyes. 

For the prolixity of tliis apology, I liavc no otiier justifica- 
tion, beside what is furnished by the high importance of the 
subject, and the respectability of the source from which the 
application is derived. 

With this letter I transmit to your Excellency a copy of the 
Laws of Vale College. In them may perhaps be found the best 
answer, in my power, to some of the questions, which would 



70 BYSTKBI OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

naturally be asked in the course of such an investigation, ab 
that wliich the President and Directors of the Literary Fund 
have commenced. Here these laws have had a happy efficacy. 
If I may suppose myself authorised to give an opinion con- 
cerning tlie subject at large; I beg leave to suggest, that the 
best mode, within my knowledge, of conducting the requisite 
inquiries to a successful issue, so far as they may respect the 
JVew England Seminaries, will be to commission a competent 
person to visit such of them, as may be tliought proper, and by 
inspection, and conversation, to learn whatever may be useful 
in tiieir respective systems. Such a person would be able to 
state the specific purposes, which the Legislature of Virginia 
have in view; and could ask the questions, and obtain the ex- 
planations, which may be conducive to the general design. 
With high consideration, 
I have the honour to be, Sir, 
Your Excellency's most humble 
And most obedient Servant, 

TIMOTHY D WIGHT. 
Mis Excellency Governor JVicholas. 



JIJ\''SJVER of Doctor Samuel L. Mitchill, of JVeu; Fork, to 
the same letter. 

Outline of a System of Public Education, submitted respect- 
fully to the consideration of the Directors of the Literary 
Fund in the State of Virginia, being an answer to the circu- 
lar letter of his Excellency Wilson Gary Nicholas, Presi- 
dent of the Board, &c. &c. by Samuel L. Mitchlil. 

J\'*ew Fork, July 16% 181G. 
SIR, 

By the letter of May 30th, which you did me the hon- 
our to address to me, and which reached me yesterday, I find 
that the president and directors of the literary fund establish- 
ed by the general assembly of Virginia are engaged in digest- 
ing a system of public education. They are worthily employed. 
it is in their power to improve on the plans of their predecessors. 



f 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 71 

As they undertake the business latest, they oii2;ht to ]Moduce 
somethinjv better than the world has seen before. From the 
talent and enterprise of your citizens, I expect an institution 
adapted to the actual condition of society and to the modern 
situation of man. New cities are more convenient than old, 
because the present generation has all the past to instruct 
them. — And so it ought to be with learned institutions. 

I by no means flatter myself tliat I can excel others in de- 
vising a grand scheme of instruction. The same mind does not 
often combine comprehensive and general views with exact and 
minute knowledge of detail. The verj undertaking would 
terrify and overpower me, was there not a sort of negative 
consolation in falling short where abler men than myself have 
failed. Diffident as I am of my ability to present you any 
opinions or hints that may interest you, I cannot, however, 
slight the opportunity which your politeness affords, to give you 
my ideas on that important subject. Our long acquaintance 
in Congress has made impressions on my mind of an agreeable 
and durable nature. If there should be any value in my sen- 
timents, you will know how to use them as materials for con- 
structing the edifice, in which you are engaged. If otherwise, 
tiiey may be laid aside, that, in their stead, place maybe given 
to things of a preferable quality. 

Human beings, considered as the subjects of instruction, 
may be engaged under two principal heads : first, those whose 
organs of sense are entire; and secondly, such as are defective 
in one or more of them. 

The information that both classes possess is derived, hu- 
manly speaking, from four sources: 

Domestic — from mother, nurse and attendants. 
Casual from accidental early associations. 
Personal — from individual observation or research. 
Scholastic — from professed masters and teachers. 

But, to render the acquirement of knowledge more easy and 
regular, as well as more pleasant and extensive, places of tui- 
tion have been established with competent instructors. When 
these are 

Elementary, they are called Common Schools. 
Progressive, High Schools, or Academics, 



»Vrf> 



7^ SYSTEM OF PUKIJC ERU CATION, 

Liberal, they aie called Colleges. 
Complete, Universities. 

In maturing a broad and finished plan of education, I wouM 
advise the board of directors to make the best provision thej 
can, for instilling into all the individuals of both the before- 
mentioned classes throughout every seminary they may super- 
intend, the following habits, arts and notions, as fundamental 
and essential. They are more particularly intended for boys; 
but as far as they are applicable, they are equally proper for 
girls. 

I. Habits of Morality and Order. 

1. In relation to the Pupil. — —Self Respect, Temperance, 
Early Rising, Cleanliness, Industry, Method. 

2. As regards other persons. — Obedience to x\uthority, 
Speaking the Truth, Deference to Fellow-Creatures, Inoften- 
sive Conduct, Decorous Manners. 

II. ^rts of Security and Precaution. 

1. Athletic— —Self Defence, Wrestling, Marching, Tac- 
tics. 

2. Gymnastic— —i— Elements of labour to get and to pre- 
pare food, Running, Riding. 

III. JSTotions of one's self and of the material tvorld, on tliest 
■points; viz. 

1. Cold: — its practical history, and the means of guarding 
against it, by Clothes, Houses, Fire. 

2. Hunger and Thirst; — their practical history, and the 
means of satisfying them, by Hunting, Pastoral Occupation, 
Agriculture, The Limpid Stream, Artificial Drinks. 

3. Sleeping and Waking; — their practical history; with 
the inconveniences from too much sleep ; manner of employing 
the hours of wakefulness. 

4. Heat; — its practical history: with the modes of render- 
ing it useful, and avoiding its mischiefs.-— 

lis beneficial application : — the several kinds of fuel ; modes 
of kindling, sustaining, and extinguishing fire ; ways of econo= 
iTvizing caloric; methods of circumscribing fire. 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 73 

Its injurioiia action: — Excessive Radiance of the Sun ; Con- 
flagrations of Infiammabie Substances; Spontaneous Combus- 
tions. <• 

5. Rain; — Its practical history; with the means of endur- 
ing; it; by Impenetrable Garments; Removal of Wet Cover- 
ings; Immuring the Constitution. ■' 

6. Wind ; — Its practical history, and the means of temper- 
ing it, by Shelters; Situations; Custom. 

7. Water ; — Its practical history, witli the means of prevent- 
ing accidents from it; by Learnin<; to Swim; Buoj^ancy of 
Light Bodies: Sculling and Rowing Boats. 

I consider this kind of knowledge ought to be possessed bv 
every rational creature. It should be learned early, and learn- 
ed well. The sooner it is taught, the be ter. It is obtained 
by the daily experience of life; but requires explanations and 
comments. 

COMMON SCHOOLS. 

The other modes of imparting instruction to those who have 
perfect organs of sense may be accomplished through the se- 
veral seminaries before-mentioned. For example, the direc- 
tors may order that, in their common schools, the masters shalj 
give lessons in 

Orthography and Spelling, -j 

Orthography and Reading, V The mother tongue. 

Syntax and Parsing, J 

Penmanship, 

Elementary Arithmetic and Calculation, 

Accounts and Book -Keeping. 

With such a course of education, the greater number of 
children might withdraw, decently qualified for the useful 
concerns of life; er to be promoted to the next degree of 
learning. 

HIGH SCHOOLS. 

The board might also determine what sort of instruction, 
and how much, in addition to the preceding, should be given 
fa the High Schools or Academies ; to it-it: 
10 



74i SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDI? CATION. 

The more exalted science of numbers: — Elementary Geogra- 
jihj, antl Geometry; Land Surveying and Navifjation. 

Bomcstic Literature^ in the Rudiments of Grammar; Oral 
Recitations. 

Ancient Literature. — Grecian ; Roman. 

Foreign Literature.-^Yi-iinch. 
But I would leave much of this latter article to private exer- 
tion, and individual wants; or to the inclination and diligence 
of the students. This would accommodate those who wished 
special qualifications, or desired something of an electic course 
of study. The course would qualify them for the reputable 
■walks of life ; or for advancement to the college. 

COLLEGES. 

The high authority of the directors might likewise assign 
precise limits and functions to the colleges under their juris- 
diction ; by enacting that the professors should teach, 

I, In Morals. — The History of Man ; Theory of Mind ; 
Knowledge of God; Ethical Laws and their application; 
Casuistry; Politics. 

IL In Philosophy. — Faculties of the understanding, con- 
nected with objects of knowledge ; Logic, or the art of reas- 
oning; by Syllogism; Induction;- Demonstration; Experi- 
ment ; Specimen. 

in. In Literature. — Universal Grammar; Belles Lettres ; 
Rhetoric; Criticism; Composition, as to the several langua- 
ges, the pupils have learned. 

IV. In Mathematical Science. — The higher Geography and 
Geometry ; Plane and Spherical Trigonometry ; Algebra and 
Fluxions; Logarithms; Laws of Motion; Astronomy; Chro- 
nology ; and the other branches of Mathematics Proper. 

V. In Physical Science. — Hydrostatics; Hydraulics; Me - 
chanics; Pneumatics; Optics; Magnetism; Electricity, ami 
the other branches of Experimental Physics, called Natural 
Philosophy. 

VI. In Chemical Science. — The Action of the Particles of 
Matter upon each other by Affinities; Their Agency under 
the Influence of Heat; Mixture. — —Compounding and De- 
compounding Bodicsj by the Synthetical, and Analytical Me- 
thods; and in the Moist and Dry Ways. 



SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION. 75 

Vri. In J^atiiral Science. — Geology ; Hydrology; Meteor- 
ology; Mineralogy; Botany; Zoology; and all the Depart- 
ments of Natural History. 

After having finished such a course as this, your students 
may be created Doctors of Philosopliy. 

THE UNIVERSITY. 

It will in all probability be deemed discreet by the hoard of 
directors to fix a proper signification to the word " Univer- 
sity." Its true meaning IS a Seminary or Institution, in which 
all excejlent knowledge is taught and may be learned. Such 
an establishment ought to comprise groups of professorships, 
io prepare citizens for the professions and employments ihey 
intend respectively toat'a'i: thus, 

1. FsotESsioNs. — 1. The Profession of Fhysick—^ — The 
whole circle of Natural Science mentioned in the Collegiate 
Course. ...Economy and Practice of Hospitals; Medical Juris- 
prudence ; Human and Comparative Anatom}-, with Physiol- 
ogy; Principles and Operations of Surgery.— ■—The whole 
circle of Chemical Science mentioned in the Collegiate 
Course. ...Materia Medica; Theory and Practice of Medicine; 
The History of the Soil we iuhabit; the Water v/e drink; 
the Air we breathe, and t!ie Food we eat. 

2. The Profession of Theolngij, — Natural Religion; Reveal- 
ed Religion; Hebrew Literature; Ecclesiastical ni3t.>ry; 
Church Government and Discipline; The State of Religion 
in the United States. 

Here Students may be qualified to become doctors of divin- 
ity. 

3. The Profession of Mnsick. — History of Musick ; Acous- 
tics, or tiie science of notes, tones and sounds ; Art of Mu- 
sick; Musical Instruments; Musical Composition, with mel- 
ody, harmony, and the v.'hole effect of sounds in concerts. 

In some Universities, musick is ranked among the learned 
professions ; and a minute and profound acquaintance with the 
several branches of which it consists entitles the professor to 
the title and dignity of a doctor. 

4. The Profession of Liuv. — Grounds and Principles of 
Law; Law of the State; Common Law of England; Consti- 



70 SYSTEM OP PUBLIC EDUCATION, 

tntion, Treaties and Statutes of the United States ; Municipal 
Law ; Civil and Canon Law; Law of Nature and of Nations ; 
Proceedings in Civil Actions ; Proceedings in Criminal Cases, 
•r— Hence will proceed able men for council, bar, and bench. 

5. The Profession of Arms. — Engineering and Gunnery j 
Naval Tactics; Castrametation ; Preservation of Health; 
Camp Discipline and Police; Apparatus of War; Arsenals; 
Magazines; Pyrotechnics; Forming an Army; Care of 
Fighting Men ; Use of an Armed Force ; and many other 
matters. 

Although the national legislature has established a military 
academy, there is no impediment to the establishment of in- 
stitutions, for similar purposes, under the patronage of the 
several states. It behoves them to render this species of 
knowledge more familiar and accessible ; that thereby officers 
may be iaihued with a good portion of military science. 

II. EMPLorMENT's.—'l. f/s^/u/ w3rfs....Such as thosc of the 
mechanist, smith, curer of provisions, baker, brewer, tanner, 
cook, dyer, soap-maker, glass-maker, distiller, refiner of sugar, 
and various others, as far as a scientific knowledge of their 
principles will aid their technical processes. 

2. Fine iQrts. — Such as Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, 
Drawing, Engraving and Designing: to aid all v/orks of ele- 
gance and taste. 

S. Ilural Economy ; or an acquaintance with land, as con- 
yiected with minerals, plants and animals ; with natural and 
artificial advantages ; and with the method of rendering- 
labour productive ;— -an important kind of knowledge for pro- 
prietors of real estates. 

4. Foliticat Economy ; — comprehending the several sub- 
jects of stock ; profit ; labour ; money ; precious metals ; 
paper; banks; exchange; commerce; taxes: expenditure; 
debt; individual and national wealth; and afibrding intelli- 
gienc^ of the highest moment to those who are called to the 
legislative and executive functions of government. 

5. Veterinary Mmicinc ^ or a knowledge of the distempers 
of domesticated animals, with the most approved methods of 
treating tliem : enabling its possessor to save the lives of valu- 
able bruie creatures. 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 77 

In this sketch your excellency will readily observe, that I 
mean to include several great establishments, which I now 
proceed to name : that is to say, 

The Apparatus for Natural Philosophy.. 

A Museum of Natural History. 

A Collection of Anatomical Preparations. 

A Laboratory for Chemical Experiments. 

An Observatory for Astronomical Purposes. 

A Garden and Conservatory for Plants. 

A Repnsitnry fni Mudelh, Machines and Instruments of 
every kind. 

A Lil)rary for Books, Maps, and delineations of all des- 
criptions, that the printer, draughtsman and engraver can fur- 
nish. 

I am serious in recommending to your populous and opu- 
lent state, the execution of a plan, embracing substantially 
the several particulars herein enumerated. Their variety and 
magnitude ouglit not to produce the smallest discouragement. 
Though their completion may require considerable time and 
jnuch exertion ; their foundations ought now to be laid.^ 
What the present race shall leave unfinished, their successors 
may bring to perfection. The attempt will be honourable and 
glorious to its promoters, and eminently useful to the repub- 
lic. A free and magnanimous people ought to commence the 
work, and never relax their efforts until it is crowned with suc- 
cess. 

It remains that I suggest to your excellency something for 
the benefit of such persons as are deprived of one or more of 
the organs of sense, or ot the use thereof. These are the 
blind, and the deaf; who require peculiar modes of instruc- 
tion, and are therefore generally outcasts from the usual cham- 
bers of learning. 

Your university ought to be organized with an institution to 
assist those who are deprived of the sense of sight. A plan of 
instruction for blind citizens will enlarge your system beyond 
that of most other seminaries. 

The University of Virginia ought also generously to provide 
the means of imparting knowledge to the deaf and dumb.— . 
This art has been so fully elaborated, and so exactly reduced 



78l SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, 

to practice in Europe, that tliere can be no insjyirmoun table ob- 
stacle to its introduction under an authority so spirited and 
determined as that under which your excellency and your as- 
sociates act. 

For myself, attached to the land of my nativity by ties as 
strong as can bind a man to this v/orld, I participate in no de- 
gree that jealousy which would set New-York and Virginia 
at variance. As we labor together in political and mercantile 
concerns, let us do so in matters of literature and science. 
As you justly observ*», « fhft great causo of lUomtnrp, and 
" science is not local in its nature, but is an object of interest 
*' to the whole human species." For the furtherance of that 
great cause, the legislature of New-York state and the com- 
mon council of New-York city have done acts, which entitle 
them to the praise of their contemporaries, and to the grateful 
remembrance of posterity. I have only to say to Virginia, in. 
the words of mercy and love, " Go, and do thou likewise." 
Accept the assurance 

of my high and particular respect, 

SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 
To his Excellency Governor JSTicholas. 



FINIS. 



